Enemy of My Enemy
by Concolor44
Summary: It's been a few years since Jinx was last in town, and Raven thought she had everything sorted. But memory is a malleable thing, and hers may be playing her false.  Rated M primarily for gore and violence. Definitely yuri, but no REAL lemons.
1. Chapter 1  Memory

**ENEMY OF MY ENEMY**

_[Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans. DC Comics does. This is a sadness to me, but credit must be given where credit is due, and if DC hadn't come up with them in the first place, this story never would have happened, now would it?]_

**[Author's Note: Here are the standards I will use in this fic:**

**The usual convention is that "thoughts" are presented in plain italics, usually without quotes, as in: **Jinx didn't comment, but thought, _I figured she was wrong, but kept my trap shut anyway._

**Memories will be set off by three asterisks (* * *) before and after, and presented in bold-face snippets. **

**This system will be carried through in all future chapters. I hope this clears up any misconceptions. It would be REALLY nice if this site gave us the option of using more than one font, but that isn't the case and I just have to deal.]**

**. . .**

**. . .**

**. . .**

_**Chapter One - Memory**_

The setting sun glanced off the massive glass array of Titans Tower at a perfect angle, lighting it up like a candelabra without shining directly into my eyes. Easing into my perch on the roof of one of Jump City's middling-tall office buildings, I studied the big T-shaped thing, sticking up out of the bay on that piddly little island. I _would_ have thought it somewhat pretty, in a mechanistic, utilitarian way, if it didn't also happen to represent forty-odd months of hellish battles, frustration, and occasional short bouts of jail-time for me back in my teen years. So, despite the nice collection of typical sunset colors bouncing off it, I couldn't really see it in a positive light.

Sneaking a peek at my watch, I noted that Raven's patrol would be over in about seventy minutes; my spell would take forty-five to prepare. Granted, most of that would be meditation and chanting, but one can't be too careful, _especially_ when going after – as the safari guys put it – thin-skinned dangerous game. Frankly, I'd a whole lot _rather_ face a cornered tiger than go through with the spell I had planned. Putting the pinch on a demi-demon isn't something one undertakes on a lark, let me tell you! Not even someone like me. But, being out of options, there I sat.

Most of the spell components weren't hard to come by, but the mugwort had to be fresh. It took me just about the whole damn day to find a store that carried it. Silly me, I looked in all the natural-foods places first. Didn't really expect to be able to find it fresh in a magic shop (powdered was a given, of course) but that's where I ended up getting it. Live plants, believe it or not. It seems they encouraged a grow-your-own mentality among the local spell-using populace. Very different from how they did things back East. I wasn't arguing, though.

Moving around to the lee of a big air-conditioning unit (so as to be out of line-of-sight of the Tower) I set up the copper alembic over a can of Sterno and got busy.

####

Raven's cloak slipped off her shoulders as she phased up through the floor into her room; she gave it a careless whirl toward one corner, where it draped itself obligingly over a wooden valet. I could see that her uniform was different. The leotard was gone, or at least covered, and she sported a brief, white vest over a dark, long-sleeved tee, paired with some silky-looking slacks – white, with dark stripes down the sides – and she looked **damn **good in it. The girl went and _filled out _while I was away. Floating over toward her bathroom, she didn't bother turning on any lights to alleviate the tar-like darkness. The dense, deep-purple curtains over her window effectively blocked what little light dusk had left, but her demonic heritage gave her darksight that was _at least_ equal to mine. So it only took her a second to register my shape, sitting in one of the chairs by her window. Instantly I was surrounded by a nimbus of black force that held me totally immobile, and I felt a sort of tickle in my mind as her empathic powers sought out my identity.

I won't lie: that was an uncomfortable place to be. I'd dealt with her soul-self often enough to know that I didn't care to come into contact with it any more often than I had to. She can crumple up a car with that black crap, more quickly and efficiently than the hydraulic crusher at the junk yard. I'd seen her do it. And even though I knew (okay, maybe 'knew' was a bit of a stretch) the spell I cast would keep me alive and un-vivisected, the immediate menace was freaking me the hell out.

Her eyes flashing into red slits, she spat out one word: "Jinx!"

I hid my freaked-outedness behind flippancy. "Hello, Raven. And may I compliment you on what a _wonderful_ hostess you are."

"You've got a hell of a nerve. Did you honestly think I wouldn't notice you?"

"Not hardly." Okay, she was just about as pissed as I thought she'd be. That sucked.

"Why are you here?"

Crap. No positive vibes at all. That probably meant that she didn't remember anything. And, yeah, that would be my fault. "I just decided that asking what I needed to ask face to face would work a lot better than sending you a postcard. Believe me, right now I'd rather be pretty much anywhere else."

"What do you want?" Her head jerked around the room, trying to place everything. "What have you taken?"

"I didn't take _anything_. I told you, I just need to _ask_ you something."

"And you actually expect me to _believe_ that?"

"Well, yeah, since it's the truth."

"Truth. From _you? _Right." She frowned at me. "Wait. You're _blonde_ now?"

"Pink kinda stands out." And it had been a long time since I had _any_ desire to stand out.

"… Why did you cut your hair?"

"Short's a lot easier to keep up. Life's been kinda busy for me." And being short kept it out of an opponent's grip, too. I asked her, "What, you don't like my stylish pixie-do?"

She showed me a wicked smirk. "Well, they won't have to cut it for you when you get to prison, will they?"

I tried to derail that train of thought. "Raven, think a minute; do you remember our last dust-up?"

"... If memory serves, I was preventing you from stealing a sacred spear from the Treece Museum."

"Spear and atlatl. Commission job. Woulda made eighty large. And, yeah, you stopped me. Got a coupla nasty cuts outta the deal. And that was well over three years ago."

"What's your point?"

"I disappeared for three years. You had not a clue where I went. There were no reports about me, no suspicious crimes with my MO, not even a whisper. Am I right?"

Her eyes began to lose their red glint. "... I say again, what's your point?"

"And – correct me if I'm wrong – the spear and atlatl disappeared anyway sometime later, didn't they?"

"... Um … There was a fire at the museum. Several items were destroyed ..."

"So you bought it. Yeah, that's what everyone was _supposed_ to believe."

"The spear-point was _still there!_ Charred and broken, but still there. Nobody ..."

"No, no. _**A**_ spear-point was there. The thief planted it right before he started the fire."

"The fire started in an electrical outlet!"

"Not surprising, considering who stole the stuff. You ever wonder why a perfectly good, city-inspected electrical outlet suddenly decided to overload and burn?"

"... Uh ..."

"AfterShock was the thief. He came in over the electrical grid. Since he couldn't get the loot out the same way, I think he left through the broken skylight, but I never was able to verify it."

Raven stared at me hard. "You seem to know an awful lot about it."

"I investigated it for four months. I _should_ know a lot about it."

"So are you just here to brag?"

"Not bragging. I need your help."

She actually laughed at that ... loudly. "My help. Yeah, sure, let me just get my cloak." Chuckling again, she shook her head and continued, "Seems like you wasted a deal of effort. You're going to jail, you know."

"Wouldn't be the first time. And, may I point out, I'm not in jail yet."

"A technicality." She floated over to hover directly in front of me. "You pique my curiosity, Jinx. The Tower _does_ have a telephone, you know. You didn't have to indulge your penchant for breaking and entering just to talk."

"Would you have talked with me if I just phoned?"

She considered that for a moment, pursed her lips, and tapped a fingertip lightly against them. "Perhaps not. But then you also wouldn't be headed to jail, either."

"Would you just hear me out, please? I'm not going anywhere, obviously, and I really do need your help. Really, really."

"I can't conceive of a situation where I would be willing to help you with _anything_ you have planned."

"How about helping me stop a demon from destroying the world?"

The temperature in the room took a noticeable nosedive. Her eyes flashed to red again as she answered, "You come here, you invade my room – _my __**room**_ – and ask for my help … and then _**mock**_ me?"

"Who's mocking? I'm serious!"

Closing the distance, her face a hand's breadth from mine, she said, "So am I. And this conversation is over." She raised her hands. "Lights out, Jinx."

_She_ learned some new tricks, too. Lightning flew from her fingertips and invested the walls of soul-self that trapped me, sending fifty thousand volts through my frame. I screamed …

… and came to my senses on the office building roof.

"… ow …"

That's all I could come up with, and _that_ barely a whimper. My head was coming apart in a slow-motion detonation, a side effect of the Doppelganger spell, which I _was_ expecting, but which she made a lot _worse_ with that electrical attack. Yeah, didn't see that coming. I carefully rolled over, holding my poor head to keep my brains from oozing out and leaking down my neck, and grabbed the two aspirin powders I had set out earlier. I didn't even bother to drink anything with them.

It's a good spell. Really. I've used it a few times before. If done right, there's no way anybody can tell it's not me, and it obviously worked on Raven. And, boy, did she work _**me**_ over! Fortunately – in particular this time because it's really tough to hide from an empath of Raven's caliber – the spell also shielded the user from psychic spying. I sure as _hell_ wouldn't be able to do anything for myself right then.

Lying there in the dark, trying to will away the pounding behind my eyes, a slow sigh escaped my lips. I knew from the get-go that this wasn't going to be easy, and I figured she probably wouldn't go for it the first time around – even if she _did_ remember everything, which she obviously didn't – so I guess you could say I wasn't _completely_ disappointed. I made contact, at least, and she hadn't managed to kill me ... yet.

The night was fine. There was no rain in the forecast. I pulled a blanket over my aching self and tried to get some sleep.

####

Nightwing and Starfire looked up in alarm when Raven came storming into the common room. She whipped her head around, grumbled, closed her eyes, and concentrated. "Okay. Basement," she muttered, and started to phase down through the floor. But she stopped when her torso was still sticking out, and said, "Oh, Kori, by the way, happy birthday."

"Thank you, Raven!" But her response fell on a vanishing circle of black on the carpet.

Starfire gave her husband a look. He shrugged. "You know how she is."

"Our dear friend as been unsettled lately. I inquired yesterday as to its cause, but she was noncommittal in her answer."

"Yeah, that's Raven." He reached over and picked up a bottle. "More wine?"

Holding out her glass – into which she'd already deposited a generous blob of hot Chinese mustard – she smiled and said, "Thanks, yes!"

####

About a year and a half earlier, Victor Stone had constructed a robotic manipulator for the T-Car. It would latch onto four (reinforced) points on the frame and pick it up; then the vehicle could be positioned and angled in any convenient way to allow access for maintenance. And it often _needed_ maintenance, given its frequent encounters with villains or their mechanisms that would try to destroy it.

That's where Raven found him, standing in front of the underside of "his baby", extracting some esoteric piece of hardware. She floated up beside him. "Vic, I need you to do something for me."

"Oh, hey, Rae. Yeah, sure. Whatcha need?"

"I need you to pull your long-range DNA scan unit out of mothballs and find someone for me."

"Yeah? Who?"

"Jinx."

He went still, then glanced over at her. "Jinx? How long-range we talkin' here?"

"In Jump. Or near it. She was just here."

"Damn!" The spanner he held made a jarring _klang_ sound as it landed on the concrete. "Here? You mean like, in the Tower?"

"Yes. Only it wasn't really her. She used a Doppelganger spell."

His raised eyebrow telegraphed his unfamiliarity with the term.

"It's a spell that creates a temporary double of the caster, and puts it wherever the caster desires. It's indistinguishable from the original. Even gives off the same mental aura." Talking more to herself, she added, "It's high-level magic, too. She's gotten a lot better if she can swing that."

"Jinx! Damn. I haven't seen her in … wow … must be ..."

"Three years, five months, one day."

That earned her a long, speculative look. She squirmed a little under that keen gaze and said, "She tried a heist and we stopped her. Remember? It was at the Treece Museum, the very day before Mayor Stein's inauguration when the League of Assassins attacked."

"Oh, yeah! And the JLA and the Titans East got mixed up in it. God, what a mess that was!"

"Yes, it was that. But that's why the date stuck in my head."

"All right, I'll buy that. You're off the hook."

"Hook? What hook?"

He was all grins. "Never mind."

"Oh, no, there's no 'never mind' after a comment like that. What are you talking about?"

"Nothin' special."

She crossed her arms and started tapping one foot.

"You really want me to say it?"

_tap tap tap tap tap tap tap …_

"Fine. You asked for it." He bent and picked up his spanner, turned back to the T-Car, and said, "You were crushing on her."

"What. The. Hell?"

"You heard me. I practically considered you competition."

"Look, Vic, don't try to make this about me. We _all_ know how you felt about that nutcase, but how you can think I could _possibly_ ..."

"She ain't a nutcase. She's quirky. A free spirit." He cast his biological eye her way. "And, yes, you two were crushing on each other."

"That's funny," she commented. "I don't normally think of you as delusional, but I guess I'll have to make an exception."

"Methinks she doth protest too much."

"And _methinks_ you're full of shit."

He turned to face her, leaned back against the robotic manipulator, and held up a polished finger. "Number One. National Holdings Bank. That was, what? Three months or so before the Museum? We caught 'em dead to rights, and the fight was short. I disassembled Gizmo, 'Wing took out Mammoth, Starfire collared Billy Numerous, and Gar stomped See-More into a thin paste. You went after Jinx. And you didn't show back up for, like, three hours. And your uniform was torn in a couple of strategic places … and no Jinx."

The grinding of Raven's teeth would have been audible from the next room. "I chased the bitch over half the city. She blew a hole in my cape, and I got tossed into the bay. That would wreck anybody's ..."

"Number Two. The Westgate Mall payroll. You were on patrol and took the call. She led you a merry chase all over downtown, dropping cash the whole way. We recovered most of it, and the empty bag."

"She blew up half the cars along Jeffries Street! I had my hands full just keeping the collateral damage from extending to the _couple_ _thousand_ _civilian bystanders_ all milling around on their lunch break and ..."

"I thought at the time it smelled pretty damn fishy. As far as Richard was concerned she just did it for shits and giggles, and to twist our noses. But I figured out later that she was only doing it to flirt with _**you**_."

"That has got to be the biggest load of crap I ever ..."

"Number Three. That jewelry store on Tenth Avenue. Don't remember its name. She hit it right at closing time, all on her lonesome about two months after the National Holdings job, when the rest of the H.I.V.E. Five were still stuck in jail. The call came in and you were all over it. 'I got this,' you said, and off you went."

"She got my goat, okay? I just wanted to prove to myself that I could take the little bitch down!"

"Uh-huh. 'cept you didn't. And Jinx got away with a rare pink diamond ring. But that was all she took. Then _you_ were gone 'til late the next day, and when you got back, you looked like something the cat dragged in. Dick was ready to shit gold bricks, 'cause you wouldn't answer your T-Com. But you didn't say squat to any of us, went to your room and disappeared, and the only thing I can come up with as to why Dick didn't ream you a new one was that you looked so bad at the time."

"Yeah, he's all heart."

"Don't I know it. But _**then**_ … the very next day after _that_, a little box shows up in our mail, no stamp, no return address. Gar opens it up, and lookee here! There's a pink diamond ring and a note that says somethin' like, 'Ravey, Sorry for the hassle, this is for your trouble, J'."

Her mouth fell open. "That ring went _straight_ back to the ..."

"Number Four ..."

"... jewelry store! And I almost _died_, damn it! She blew a chimney apart, nearly dropped it on me! I _told_ you all that!"

"… Number _Four_ …"

His hand and mouth were covered then in black mist. "Vic, would you just stop, please?"

He grinned, and shut up, and the mist faded out.

"Thank you. I see your point. I understand why you might think that. But I maintain that you are _completely_ off base, barking up the wrong tree, fishing with a coat hanger … pick a metaphor!"

"Fair enough. Let me ask you this, then: where in the Tower did you run into her?"

She glanced away. "..."

"What was that? I don't think I caught that."

Raven gritted out, "... In my room, okay?"

His grin threatened to split his head.

"It. Was. **NOT**. Like. That."

"Whatever." He gave her a shrug. "So why was she here, if it wasn't interest in you?"

"She said she wanted my help."

He laughed a while over that.

"Finally, we agree on something. I told her that wouldn't be happening."

"No, Rae, I was laughing because you're being dense."

"… Dense?"

"Yeah, dense. She's got the hots for you."

"Right. She drops off the radar for three and a half years, and the reason she shows back up is that she has a _thing_ for me? What's wrong with this picture?"

"Go ahead and think that if that helps you sleep at night."

"Vic. Drop it." She held up a hand to stop his rejoinder. "No. You've had your fun. Haha, good one on Raven. Now. Please unlimber that DNA detector and find Jinx so I can go _thank_ her for sneaking into my room by _beating_ her until she starts shitting her own teeth!"

"Yes, O Mistress of the Dark."

But forty-five minutes later he was shaking his head while grumbling over the device in question. "Sorry, Rae. There's nothin' wrong with the equipment. Either she's not close enough, or she's figured out how to mask herself."

"Damn."

"What'd you say the range was on that spell?"

"About three klicks for good control. Five tops, but it's hard to maintain for long at that distance. As good a job as she did with it, I'd say she had to be within two, probably less."

"Well I'm getting' nothin'."

"Crap."

He leaned back in his chair, laced his massive fingers behind his head, and stated, "You said she asked for your help."

"Yeah. So?"

"What kinda help she need?"

That earned him a snort. "She wasn't being serious."

At his deep chuckle in response to that, she ground out, "Fine. She said she wanted my help in stopping a demon from destroying the world."

Vic's expression sobered up. "A demon, huh?"

"Yeah. Funny, right?"

"And you think she was just blowin' bullshit bubbles?"

"Of course! There's no way in _hell_ she'd be involved with taking down a demon! She's a _thief_, Vic, and a vandal, not a … a knight errant! If she _did_ know about something like that, she'd be selling _popcorn_ on the sidelines while she picked the audience's collective _pocket_, not taking it on by herself!"

"Meh. I think you're selling her short."

"And you've got a soft spot for her."

"And I don't deny it. But look at the situation." He ticked off the points on his fingers. "She came to you and asked for help, at considerable personal risk. She didn't attack you. She didn't steal anything. She gave you what you regard as a ridiculous reason for her visit, but if she knows you at all she should know you'd think that, so why would she use it?" He spread his hands. "Way I see it, she just might be on the level."

"… Are we talking about the same person here?"

"Make fun if you want, Rae. I think you ought to check it out." A low chuckle scampered by. "And you know … you _are_ uniquely qualified for something like that."

She didn't bother to answer before floating up through the ceiling.

####

Meditation did not go well that evening. Images of Jinx kept interrupting. Images, specifically, that Vic had dredged up, and that Raven had conveniently forgotten. That jewelry store on Tenth, for instance, was called Fagan's Fine Gems. She decided to start there.

*** * *  
She caught a glimpse  
of the black-tricked pink horns  
about a block down from the store,  
just as the thief disappeared into an alleyway.  
A quick glance into the jeweler's –  
and a quick scan of the emotional output –  
proved that no one had been hurt,  
so she gave chase.  
The alley turned out to be a short dead end.  
That left only one avenue out (up the walls),  
so Raven cast her soul-self outward,  
seeking one, peculiar psychic signature …  
and there she was.  
Streaking upward,  
the empath gained the roof in seconds,  
and the chase got somewhat haphazard  
as Jinx frantically scrambled  
from one building to the next,  
tossing hexes in her wake,  
leading her pursuer deeper  
into one of the city's industrial sections  
********* * ***

Raven frowned, but didn't open her eyes. She hadn't thought about this incident in years. Why would that be? It was just one of many … wasn't it? Just one more battle between her and that maddening … _creature_ with the fuchsia cat-eyes. More memories came up with her continued prodding.

*** * *  
Jinx wasn't moving,  
of that she was sure.  
Probably trying to catch her breath;  
they'd covered several kilometers  
in not that many minutes,  
and while Jinx ****was**** a meta-human,  
Raven knew she had her limits.  
Floating silently among the deep shadows  
cast by the various obscure devices and machines  
that littered the roof here,  
Raven kept every sense alert.  
She wasn't that familiar with this part of Jump,  
and had no idea what went on below her feet.  
The building in question was only five stories or so,  
a concrete monolith that probably housed  
some kind of manufacturing concern.  
Several of the big rooftop units were humming,  
or warm, or had fans going.  
Two of them ejected steam in regular bursts.  
And Jinx was around here somewhere.  
She could feel it  
***** * *  
**

This was making her … uncomfortable. Why? Why couldn't she recall details? She knew, clinically, that she'd had a narrow escape involving a falling chimney … didn't she? Was that right? What else was going on here? Must dig deeper.

*** * *  
Closer. She was getting closer.  
Jinx's emotions were all in a knot;  
worry, fear, excitement, exhaustion, …  
_exultation?_  
How could she be thrilled  
about being chased by a demi-demon?  
That made no sense!  
Of course, few things involving this particular thief  
did make sense.  
Slowly, carefully,  
she moved around the side of a tall smokestack  
***** * ***  


This was actually giving her a headache! What in the name of Azar was going on? Why hadn't she remembered any of this? But the resistance only made her more determined to get to the bottom of things.

*** * *  
Their battle raged all over the roof,  
pink blasts of hex energy  
parried by tendrils of soul-self.  
At one point they both flew apart,  
stunned,  
and Raven fetched up against one of the taller units.  
The object that then tumbled off of it  
was large, heavy, and mostly formed of stainless steel,  
and it dropped on her from some height.  
She barely got a shield up in time  
to deflect the brunt of the blow,  
but it rang her bell like a hammer  
and knocked her to the edge of the roof.  
She teetered there,  
viciously dizzy and disoriented,  
her sight going gray,  
for a few heartbeats …  
then she fell  
***** * ***

Wait! That can't be right! Something very bizarre is going on, deep in her mind. Knowledge and Wisdom are running around, frantic, trying to make all of this make sense. They are coming up short. _But don't panic_, she told herself. _Settle. Breathe, slowly and evenly. There must be an explanation. So return. Return to the memory. Ground. Center. Dig._

*** * *  
She hears her name being called.  
More than that, being ****screamed****.  
As she topples over;  
as she realizes, in some primal corner of her mind,  
that it is ****much**** too far to the concrete below  
for her to have any hope of survival;  
as she picks up speed  
and feels the air begin to make her cape whip around –  
her name reaches her ears again,  
a high-pitched voice giving vent to an agonized wail:  
_"__Raaachel!__"_ And then, nothing . . . . .  
***** * ***

Her eyes did open then, in shock. She _flumped_ down onto the bed, sprawling untidily out of the lotus position she'd maintained up to that point, but immediately sat back up and shook her head.

This couldn't be happening. Who knew her name? It wasn't as if it was some occult secret, but neither was it common knowledge. Whoever had screamed – and could it be anyone besides Jinx? – had known her given name well enough that _**it**_, rather than 'Raven', had slipped out under stress. How would Jinx have discovered it? And why would she be so distressed? Wouldn't a dead Raven be of much greater value to her than a live one?

Standing shakily, she took stock of her room and decided to head down to the kitchen. She needed some tea.

####

It was closing in on two in the morning, and sleep yet eluded her. Staring at the ceiling, one arm flopped over her head on the pillow, she went over the questions for the umpteenth time.

Why was none of that memory familiar? Where had it been kept in the intervening years?

What had _really_ happened on that roof?

She distinctly recalled coming to her senses next to a demolished chimney. But how had she gotten there? She'd _thought_ that it fell on her, barely avoiding crushing her, but knocking her out for quite a few hours. Was _that_ the truth, or was this new scenario the real thing? It simply had not come up in her mind since it happened. She didn't like to dwell on her failures, and Jinx filled a good portion of _that_ category. But now she wondered. Which was which? Where was the truth?

Finally giving up with a sigh, she teleported down to the kitchen and once again put some water on to boil. Sitting at the table beside her waiting teacup, her chin on a fist, she came to a decision. When the kettle sang, she poured the water in over the leaves and carried the cup back to her room.

The second right-hand drawer from the top in her bureau contained a false bottom that lifted to reveal a keyhole. She inserted a key that was itself an object normally hidden away, and opened the tiny safe. Removing a heavy, silver-framed mirror, she carefully re-locked the safe.

She kept her mind-mirror out of reach on purpose. For one, she didn't need it to meditate anymore; for another, having it handy to anyone who achieved access to her room had proven dangerous on several occasions. She didn't want an unnecessary death on her conscience when it could so easily be prevented.

Taking up her position on her bed, she gazed into the mirror …

… and popped into being in her mindscape's "common" area. Wisdom was waiting on her. "It certainly took you long enough."

"The situation is too strange. There were too many variables to consider."

"Which is why you should have come to me first. This way, please. We have to get Knowledge calmed down."

"Knowledge?"

"You know how she gets when things take an illogical turn."

"Ah. Indeed."

"She's out in the wasteland, looking for the memory. I told her to wait for you, but she would not be dissuaded."

The Aspect and the Mistress trudged through bleak landscape for a bit, arriving at a dry and broken land of low hills and hidden arroyos. Raven stood still for a bit, mentally nosing around, looking for what she knew had to be there, but which would be unrecognizable. That very trait of anonymity was what led her to it: it constituted a "hole" in her psyche where there should be color. The two of them flashed to the spot.

It was a small cave that had been outfitted with a heavy, wooden door, the beams thick and the cladding strong. Raven frowned. "I didn't put this here."

"I wouldn't think so. Therefore, someone else must have."

"I don't like that answer."

"Neither do I," answered the white-caped Aspect. "Yet here it is. Would you like to open it?"

For an answer, Raven extended her soul-self, infiltrating the door and pulling it slowly open. Revealed was a small chamber containing a low table upon which sat a bright pink box and a single candle, flame flickering. Raven stared at it and said, "I'm not even going to _ask_ how that candle has been burning for so long."

"It may be merely a representation of a desire."

"Yeah, okay. Let's go with that." She ducked into the room and studied the box. It resembled a wrapped present, complete with fancy, red-and-white-striped bow, and was roughly cubic, about a hand-span on a side. She used her power to lift it and carry it outside, where she found that Knowledge had joined them. The yellow-caped Aspect breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank Azar! You found it! What's in it?"

Raven considered the package for a moment, then reached for the bow. As soon as her finger made the most tentative contact, it fell off, the paper flew into confetti, and the lid popped open.

*** * *  
I am falling.  
I cannot focus my will sufficiently enough to fly.  
I will die now.  
I hear my name being screamed.  
The ground is approaching very rapidly.  
* * ***

*** * *  
I am surrounded by pink.  
Jinx is there, on the ground,  
and she is limping.  
I fall onto something soft, and I do not die.  
But I was falling very rapidly,  
and while the softness saves my life,  
I am hurt.  
My arm is hurt, and my leg, and my head.  
My vision grows dark.  
* * ***

*** * *  
I am lying on something soft.  
My face feels wet, and cool.  
I open my eyes,  
but my vision is blurred, and fades, and shudders.  
There is a face in front of mine.  
Pink eyes gaze at me in concern.  
Again, my vision blacks out.  
* * ***

*** * *  
A salty taste gets my attention.  
Where am I?  
I can feel soft fabric beneath my hand.  
I can smell alcohol.  
My arm hurts, and my head.  
Why do I taste salt?  
Again my eyes open and I can see Jinx.  
She is crying, and it is her tears I taste,  
as they drip from her eyes onto my face,  
and a few of them run past my lips.  
* * ***

*** * *  
Why does she cry?  
I do not understand any of what is happening.  
My head feels thick, my thoughts sluggish.  
She lifts a cool, wet cloth to my face,  
and my forehead stings where she touches me.  
She meets my eyes, and she gasps.  
A pink glow surrounds her,  
and my eyes close again.  
* * ***

*** * *  
When I awaken the next time, my thoughts are clear.  
My eyes trace around the room.  
I am in a bed, a large bed with a pink canopy,  
and I am under the cover,  
and there is an arm across my stomach.  
I turn my head quickly to the left,  
but this was not a good idea.  
It creates much pain, and I groan.  
This awakens Jinx, who is lying beside me.  
Her fuchsia cat-eyes blink at mine,  
and she sits up and begins to cry.  
She asks me something,  
but the pain has overcome me,  
and I do not understand.  
I lose consciousness again.  
* * ***

*** * *  
The last time, when I awaken,  
Jinx is sitting in a chair beside my bed.  
I stare at her for many long moments,  
and she stares back.  
Tears begin to leak from her eyes.  
"Why do you cry?" I ask.**

"**Because I thought I had killed you," she says.**

"**Why would that make you cry?" I want to know.**

"**I couldn't live with myself if you were dead," she tells me.**

**I do not understand this.  
I do not comprehend any ****tiny part**** of this situation.  
"Where are we?" I ask.**

"**In my apartment."**

"**You took me to your apartment? Why?"**

"**I didn't know what else to do! You were hurt!  
I thought …  
I thought you might …  
die."  
She drops her head into her hands and begins to sob in earnest.**

"**Jinx," I finally say, when I have the strength.  
She looks up at me.  
"Why didn't you just take me to the hospital?"**

"**Because I was really afraid you really ****would**** die if I left you alone."**

"**I don't understand."**

"**You don't know how my hex power works, do you?"**

"**I know it's bad luck to get in its way."**

"**That's just one part of it.  
I can … um, kinda alter reality. A little bit."**

**I think to myself that this is a most unique statement.  
"How do you go about altering reality?"**

"… **I don't … really know. It's just a thing I can do.  
And I had to … to make you better."  
She drops to her knees beside the bed  
and wraps her arms around me,  
her cheek against mine.  
"You were hurt so ****bad****!  
You had bones sticking out of your arm.  
And your head had a … a funny dent.  
But I made it better."**

**I look at her closely  
and see that she appears drawn,  
and thin, and tired.  
"When?" I ask.**

"**When, what?"**

"**How long have I been here?"**

"**Since last night, when we fought."**

**I close my eyes and take a few deep breaths.  
"I still don't understand."**

"**What?"**

"**Why you care whether I live or die."**

**She straightens up then, and meets my gaze with a  
smoldering one of her own.  
"You don't, huh? Well, let me explain."  
And she leans over and places her lips on mine.**

**This is a most novel experience.  
On three occasions prior to this,  
Gar had managed to sneak a kiss from me,  
but I always pushed him away.  
This time is … quite different.  
Her lips are soft, so soft, and they tremble slightly  
as they press against me.  
Again I taste a slight salty tang from her tears,  
but there are other tastes as well.  
All this comes to me in a miniscule fraction of a second,  
and I am startled and I gasp and my lips open.  
She takes this as an invitation.  
Her tongue slips in and lightly brushes my lips, my teeth,  
then my own tongue, and the other tastes explode.  
There is mint and chocolate and something herbal  
that is slightly bitter but good.  
Her tongue is even softer than her lips,  
but more insistent, almost desperate.  
My eyes close and I melt into her kiss.  
But this only lasts for a few seconds before I realize,  
finally, that it is **_**Jinx**_** who is kissing me.  
****Jinx****. The thief.  
The girl who complicates my life on a regular basis,  
taunts me when we fight,  
and usually foils my efforts to arrest her.  
She's the ****girl**** that does this!  
My eyes fly back open.  
Jinx is a **_**girl!**_**  
Do I even ****swing**** that way?  
It's never come up before.  
I can't get emotionally involved with others,  
certainly not to this degree.  
But … This feels really, really good.  
Good, like, blow my head completely off my neck good.  
Good, like, I don't ever want this to stop good.  
But … she's a girl, and she's Jinx,  
and Jinx is a thief,  
and Jinx is sort of maybe a little bit kind of like  
my nemesis or something,  
and I make a muffled kind of squeak noise,  
and she backs away.**

**And she says, "How was that for an explanation?"**

**My head swims  
and the room turns about thirty degrees off level,  
and I lose consciousness again.  
* * ***

Raven came back to herself in the comfortable, familiar darkness of her room. She blinked and looked over at the clock. It read 03:48. Her limbs felt stiff and heavy, her mind stuffed with wet wool, and she was suddenly overcome by a monumental fatigue. Curling up on her bed, she pulled the duvet up to her chin and told herself, firmly, _I'll think about it tomorrow._ Less than a minute later she was asleep.


	2. Chapter 2  Target

**ENEMY OF MY ENEMY**

_[Disclaimer: DC Comics owns the Teen Titans. That means all I own is this plot.]_

_**Chapter Two - Target**_

By the next day I was feeling something like my old self, and I congratulated me on my meta-human awesomeness. But once breakfast was out of the way …

Okay, wait. I'm leaving you at something of a disadvantage here. Let me recap. Name's Jinx. It's not what I was born with, but that suits me just fine. I introduce myself as Jennie-Joyce Barnes (this week) and tell the people I meet to just call me JJ. Most of my aliases start with J. It's just easier.

I've been back in Jump now for five days, and for four of 'em I've been scoping out my quarry. You know about that if you made it through that last entry. I had me a big ol' heapin' bowl of Less-Than-Successful in my first go-around with Miss Rachel Raven Roth. Here's hoping Plan B works better, 'cause I don't have a Plan C fleshed out just yet, if you know what I mean.

Oh. Breakfast. Yeah, I was gonna tell you about that. See, I'm stayin' at this old hotel in the eastern part of the city, not a _great_ neighborhood, but not a dump, y'know? They got weekly and monthly rates, and I signed on for two weeks, because I figured, see, either I'll have Rachel talked around to my way of thinkin' by then and so maybe I can be stayin' in the Tower (Man, oh, man, I just can't _**wait**_ to see the Boy Blunder's face if I do show up there with Rae! That'd be worth the price of admission.) or, the _other_ most-likely outcome, I'll be dead. Of course, _that's_ what I started keepin' this log for, y'know? 'cause barring some kind of divine intervention, I'll prob'ly end up dead out of this deal anyhow. Well … sorta dead, that is. And I've got enough ego left that I don't want this little deviation of mine to go unnoticed.

Anyhow, this hotel included breakfast in the price. Nothin' fancy, just coffee and pastries and fruit, but they don't care how much of it you eat. And I can eat my _weight_ in some fruit, now. Not that it's sayin' much. I tip the scales at forty-four kilos if I'm fully dressed and got soaked overnight. But, hey, it's all muscle, right?

Oh, and I didn't pick this hotel 'cause it's so dirt cheap (it's a mid-range place). I could afford to stay at the Westin Plaza if I felt like it. But this crash was on the opposite side of the city from the Titans, and I needed to do that run-silent-run-deep thing until Rae came on board. Assuming she did.

Where was I? Something about breakfast … oh, yeah. After breakfast I went back up to my room and started working on Plan B. Working on the details, mind, not the plan itself, 'cause that's already done.

This little ear-thingy is great. Everybody thinks it's just a Bluetooth – which it is, and a good one – but it lets me record stuff anytime I want, and sends it back to the central unit. Hard-shielded, secure, permanent record, y'know?

So. Plan B. I opened up my Mary Poppins briefcase, rummaged around in it for a second, and pulled out Excalibur …

… Yes, I said Excalibur. The one King Arthur got from that water-lady. It's real. Trust me, jadies and lents, a whole hell of a _lot_ of stuff that you didn't think was real … is real. Most of it not _nearly_ as nice as this pretty longsword. Excalibur didn't try to kill you or possess you or eat your soul. It just made you _completely freaking __invincible_ in a fight. I nicked it going on two years ago now, and I love-love-love it!

Here's another trick I learned while playing around with it one night: see, the thing is, Excalibur was made by these little guys that live underground. Leastways, they used to. I'm pretty sure they're all dead now, and that _does_ have something to do with why I'm here, but not directly. Okay, that just sounded weird. I'll leave that explanation for later, if it comes up again.

Oh, yeah, the trick. See, it _looks_ like metal and it _feels_ like metal and it _cuts_ like … heh, cuts a lot _better_ than metal. But it ain't really metal. Magic is like that. Glamour, you know? Looks like, but isn't? Anyway, the size of the sword isn't fixed. If you leave it alone, eventually it'll look just like it does now, that is, a little over a meter long, double-edged, with a wrapped hilt and a gold-filigree cross-guard. But if you hold it a certain way, and think about it just so, with your tongue in the right corner of your mouth … yeah, there it goes. And, voila! Now it's a switchblade. And as long as I carry it, and think about it like it's a switchblade, that's what it'll look like.

Heh. The knife fights I've won …

But enough of that. Time to head out. Raven ought to be on patrol by now. I've just gotta find her.

####

Raven, however, was _not_ on patrol. She wasn't even out of bed yet.

In many respects she kept her room the most austere of any of the Titans. The walls were one color (deep blue) and the ceiling another (light blue) and were largely unadorned. No paintings, no posters, no wall sconces or knick-knacks or anything … other than bookcases, and there were several of those. But she appreciated the lack of visual clutter. It helped with her meditation. And Azar knew she _needed_ help this morning.

Promptly at ten after six, Nightwing came pounding on her door. Since at that point she was cruising on all of two hours of sleep (and a steaming pile of doubt, indecision, resentment, and fear) she told him she was sick and to go away. He didn't say anything for several seconds, but then responded that, to the best of his recollection, she never _got_ sick. She answered that today was an exception; he tried to argue; she threatened dire physical and psychic consequences if he didn't leave her the _hell_ alone, and finally he did, although grumbling all the while that she hadn't _ever_ been sick that he could recall. Grudgingly, he figured she had something else going on that she didn't care to share with the rest of them (a not infrequent happenstance). Meanwhile he'd have to get Cyborg to do her patrol because he and Kori both had prior engagements they couldn't get out of, and Gar was still with the Titans East getting Terra settled in. He fumed over it pretty much the rest of the morning, assuming that she'd show up later once she got … _whatever_ … settled to her satisfaction.

Raven could have told him that he wasn't exactly _wrong_ in that opinion. But satisfaction in this instance was elusive. Once awake, she simply could not get back to sleep. The memories she'd released wouldn't let her.

That Jinx had cared about her was a shock. That she had _kissed_ her was mind-boggling. That Raven had enjoyed it? That tore her world's linchpin right out of its hinges. And the fact that Jinx had somehow been able to _take_ those memories, stick them in a _box_, and _hide_ them in an unknown corner of her mind …

She chewed on that 'til her brain hurt. Not one single aspect of this series of events was to her liking. How had Jinx sequestered the memory? That was _advanced_ Psychic magic, and as far as Raven knew, way over Jinx's head. Or maybe not. But then there was the whole issue of Jinx getting into her head in the first place, when she wasn't even _any kind_ of telepath. That left Raven feeling somewhat violated. Sullied, even. The mind was sacrosanct, an individual's last resort to privacy, which was why telepaths were so hated and feared by the rest of the populace. Her empathic talent just barely skirted the edge of that hatred for some people. Yet another prime reason for her to remain aloof from the rest of humanity.

She shook her head. Again. It did no good to dwell on any of _that_.

Another thing that bothered her was that the memory she'd uncovered felt … incomplete. What set her seriously off her feed was the discovery that the ambit of her comprehension where her own mind was concerned was a _variable_. Bitterly she wondered what other surprises might be hiding in there. She was aware now that Knowledge had a new quest: to go through every scrap of Raven's mindscape and tease out anything else that lurked, undiscovered, in the shadows. But that territory covered one unholy _hell_ of a lot of ground, and Knowledge was being meticulously thorough. It could take a while.

And thus she meditated. And got no peace.

####

Running along streets that were mercifully light on traffic this mid-morning, the T-Car made quite a statement in its titanium-chromium-tantalum-ruthenium-alloy splendor. Victor Stone relished the fact that he didn't have to worry about the car's paint job, because it didn't _have_ one. Trading paint in a high-speed chase, therefore, was a one-way swap, and always came off with ease when he got back to the garage.

With the vehicle's full array of sensors and communication devices deployed, he was frequently the first or second on the scene if he was anywhere close by when the shit hit the fan. Today was no different.

Having just wrapped up yet another gang-war-related altercation, he was taking a break at one of the many little sidewalk cafés the downtown area had to offer. The proprietor had told him (of course) that his footlong meatball hoagie and extra-large blueberry smoothie were gratis, but Victor left a 'tip' behind that would more than cover the tab. It's not as if he was hurting for money, having no fewer than fourteen patents in his name, a good handful of them quite lucrative. But he appreciated the gesture.

Sucking on the last of his smoothie, he strolled back out to the T-Car … and stopped, staring in sudden interest at the petite female figure lounging against the passenger door in a dark red long-sleeved tee and black skinny-jeans. Her short, platinum-blond hair fetchingly ruffled in the light breeze, she hid her eyes behind silvered sunglasses as she toyed with a coffee cup. A smile lit her pale features when she noticed him noticing her. An answering smile clicking into place on his face, Victor continued his walk, taking the remaining few steps over to the car. "Morning, miss. There something I can help you with?"

"It's possible."

That voice nipped at a memory. "I'm sorry … do we know each other?"

The glasses slid down her nose to give him the benefit of her hot-pink gaze. "You could say that."

His jaw fell open. "… Pinky!"

"Hey, Stone. How you been?"

Grabbing her around the waist with a hearty laugh, he swung her up in the air. She shrieked a giggle in response and landed in his arms. "Damn, girl! You lookin' good! Where's the horns?"

"Kept catchin' 'em in doorways and knockin' myself out. They had to go."

He looked her over as he set her back on the ground. "Trained down fine, I can tell. Bet you haven't lost your edge."

"_Lost_ it? Hon, you'd cut yourself on just the _idea_ of my edge."

He had to laugh again at that. Cocking his head to one side, he asked, "You the real item?"

"Uh … 'scuse me?"

"You ain't a Doppelgeiger, are you?"

"Hee-hee! That's Doppel_ganger_, and no, I'm not. I'm me."

"Well, good." He glanced up and down the street and got a speculative look on his face. "Raven told me about you pokin' that feline nose of yours into her room."

"Yeah. _That_ coulda gone a lot better."

"Good way to lose said nose. Just what were you trying to accomplish?"

"I need Raven's help. Been tryin' to find her all morning. Spotted the T-Car and figured you'd be drivin'. I was kinda hopin' I could get you to vouch for me."

"Yyyyeahhhh. Tell me more about this 'help' you need."

That brought a squirm out of her. "Well. Um … okay. But you gotta promise to take this seriously."

"Heh. Seriously. Jinx asking me to take something seriously. I better write the date down."

"Ha. Very ha. I'll have you know I'm very serious most of the time anymore. A regular old fuddy-duddy."

He looked up, scanned the sky all around, and looked back at her. "Huh. I don't _see_ any flying pigs. Maybe they're invisible."

She popped him on the arm with the back of her hand, immediately wincing at how hard it was. "Sunnabitch!" she yelped, massaging her hand. "Remind me not to get into a boxing ring with you."

He just grinned and insisted, "The help. From Raven. What is it?"

"There's a badass demon tryin' to break into this dimension. I know Rae has experience at keepin' that from happening. I've got most of the tools, but I can't use 'em all, not by myself. She can, and I need her to. But last night she left me with the distinct impression that she'd rather see my skin as a lampshade, and would take a public whipping before she'd help _me_ with _anything_."

"She was pretty pissed, all right. I believe she mentioned something about beating you until you started shitting your own teeth."

"Ouch."

"Yeah. If you wanted to get on her good side, you _really_ went about it all wrong."

"Well … shit."

"Kinda pretty much, yeah."

"So what can I do to make it up to her?"

"I don't have a clue. Have to think about that one." He gave her the eye. "And what makes you think that I would be on _your_ side in this little tiff? Raven is a very good friend of mine. I'll need some damn solid bona fides before coming on board with this 'demon' thing."

"Okay. I think I can manage that." A glance at her watch told her what she needed to know. "Howsabout I meet you at the docks in four hours?"

"Where on the docks? That covers a lot of ground."

"There are two arcade piers. I'll be at the south one."

"Yeah, I think that's doable." He grinned and pointed at a traffic camera in the nearby intersection. "By the way, did you realize you were on candid camera?"

That pulled a frown off her. "No, I didn't. Damn. That wasn't really part of the plan." Thinking about it for a second, she shrugged. "It's not like they'd have anyone monitoring that system that would recognize me."

"Yeah, well, if I hadn't seen your eyes, Blondie, I wouldn't have either."

Her grin stretched out. "Exactly."

"But that doesn't matter. They don't have '_anybody'_ monitoring the system. It's a computer program. Matches facial characteristics with what they have on file. And since I helped design it, I know how good it is. So sometime later today, when it goes through the outstanding warrants …"

She held up a finger. "Okay, lemme just say this about that. Are you certain I _have_ any outstandings?"

He blinked a few times. "What makes you think you don't?"

"For what the cops wanted of me, the bench warrants are usually only good for two years. If they aren't renewed, they lapse."

Slowly nodding in thought, he answered, "Yeah. Think I knew that."

"And I've been out of town for better than three."

"True enough. What'd Raven say? Three years, five months, one day?"

Jinx felt the color rising in her cheeks. "… What?"

"Yeah, she told me that last night. You tried to pull a museum heist. The next day was when the League of Assassins tried to off the mayor, so the date stuck in her head."

"Oh! Hey, I remember that."

"I'd hope so. Nearly trashed the city."

"Didn't the Justice League …"

"Yep. And a whole bunch of others."

"Okay. I … guess that explains why she'd … remember." Her voice sounded small, and slightly depressed compared with her earlier jubilation.

"Somethin' wrong with that?"

"Hm?"

"You startin' to sound … down."

She looked off up the street, not saying anything for a moment, before turning those silvered lenses back his way. "It's nothin'."

"Which practically _guarantees_ that it actually _is_ something that matters. Spill."

Huffing a sigh, she shrugged and said, tonelessly, "Doesn't matter _anymore_. I had a chance once. But I blew it. Old news. Water under the bridge."

"It still bothers you, though."

"… Yeah. I guess. Sometimes." _Like whenever I'm awake._

"You ever decide you wanna talk about it, lemme know." He punched a couple of buttons on his left arm's console, and a small piece of paper popped out below the display. He handed it to her. "My private number."

She had to smile at that. "Thanks, Stone. I may take you up on that. Assuming Rae doesn't kill me first."

"Nah, she won't kill you. Maim, possibly …"

"_You're_ a lotta help."

"Hey, truth wins out, you know?"

"Hmph. Occasionally. When Treachery doesn't lure it down a dark alley and strangle it."

"Now you're sounding all political and shit."

"Hey, I just call 'em like …"

The T-Car's crime-alert klaxon went off. Cyborg jerked up and trotted around to the driver's side. "Later, J! Gotta run."

She waved at him, and watched as the highly-advanced vehicle tore off down the street.

####

Silently, hesitantly, Koriand'r of Tamaran floated down the hall, stopping in front of Raven's door. She listened for a moment, but heard nothing. Then she lifted her free hand and knocked.

No answer.

Chewing on her lower lip in slight worry, she called, "Raven? I have prepared tea for you."

Only four seconds passed after that statement until the door opened. Starfire nearly gasped at her teammate's bedraggled appearance, but Raven's voice was steady when she said, "Tea? You made tea? What kind?"

"It was one of yours. I have seen how you do it, and tried to …"

Raven had leaned forward and inhaled the light steam coming from the cup. The corners of her mouth quirked slightly. "Chamomile. Perfect."

Starfire's trademark blinding smile reappeared. "Did I do it correctly?"

Putting reverent hands around the cup, Raven took a slow sip and gave vent to a contented sigh. "Wonderful."

"You had not come down from your room all morning, and I knew that you did not maintain any sort of food supply there. You may be only half-human, but still you require sustenance."

The dark girl nodded tiredly. "You're right, Kori. And I haven't been making any headway with my meditation as it is. Maybe a good lunch will help."

So, a few minutes later, the two young women were banging around in the kitchen, trying to figure out what they could put together from the ingredients on hand. Raven looked askance at the choices. "Ooookay, after tossing the various smelly, fuzzy, moldy, or partially self-aware leftovers, we have canned salmon, cheese crackers, ranch dressing, peanut butter, waffle mix, dried apricots, half a liter of cream, chili sauce, two big bottles of mustard, five strips of bacon, and six kilos of semi-firm tofu."

"Uh … the mustard is mine."

"Oh, right." She looked at the bottles. "Chinese mustard, huh? Developing a taste for hot food?"

"Oh, indeed! Richard took me to a Thai restaurant for our first anniversary and I discovered the most wonderful dish called 'curry'! He had me try a few, and they were all delicious, especially the one labeled 'Thai hot'."

"Whoa! That's the stuff they don't just serve anybody, right?"

"Yes, you are right. I was made to sign a paper saying that I would not sue them if it put me in the hospital, but I do not understand why they were worried. It was most tasty. Richard said that they told him the Thai hot curry would …" She made little tic-marks in the air. "… burn the chair out from under me. But my chair was completely undamaged, so perhaps they did not make it correctly." She frowned and gave her pretty head a shake. "Truly, I do not know why the restaurant would serve a dish that offered a hazard to their furniture."

"I believe that was just a figure of speech, Kori."

Her eyes widened considerably. "Ah. I see. Another example of hyperbole?"

"Exactly!"

"Hm. English certainly is fond of those. I should make a list."

Turning back to the eclectic sampling on the table, Raven nibbled her upper lip and admitted, "I'm no great shakes in the kitchen even when I have everything I need. Given this lot, I'm at a loss."

"Perhaps we should go out for lunch."

Raven shrugged. "Works for me. I'll have to get a shower first, though." She listened a moment and asked, "By the way, where are the guys?

"You were not feeling well so Victor took your timeslot on patrol. Richard is meeting with the Chief of Police. It is a lunch meeting. He should be back here by 1330 hours, and then he and I must attend a diplomatic function at the Japanese embassy. That will take the rest of the day until it is time for him to begin his patrol."

"… Has he given up sleep for some reason?"

"I made the same observation only two days ago. He has been working on a way to curb gang violence, and it occupies much of his attention. He says he only needs a few hours a day, and he does take short sleeps at odd times. He calls them 'power naps'."

"Huh. If he says so." She gave herself a little shake. "Well, it's eleven twenty now. If we're going to lunch, we'd better get going, huh?"

"You have captured my thoughts exactly! May we return to the Thai restaurant?"

"Works for me. I haven't had Pad Thai in a while. I hope they have some fried basil." She added, just before she phased through the ceiling, "I'll be cleaned up and back down in ten minutes."

####

It used to be, some sixty years earlier, that the arcade pier was the absolute and only place to take a date. But that was back when they had a roller coaster, and a dance club, and live entertainment, and a bathing pavilion where you could rent a swimsuit for a quarter. For the last decade or so (after it languished in obscurity for better than twenty years) it had seen something of a resurgence, thanks to the advent of virtual-reality video games. Two years ago they added a really well-designed laser tag arena, and since then the place _stayed_ crowded. Even so, Victor had no trouble picking Jinx out of the crowd.

To appear 'human-normal' he was using his holographic projector, not wanting to call attention to either of them, and she seemed positively delighted when she caught sight of him. This was the Stone she knew from her days at the H.I.V.E. Academy, and fond memories began bumping each other's shoulders in her mind. She levered herself off the railing where she'd been lounging and met him in the middle of the street. "Hey, Good Lookin'! Buy a girl a drink?"

"Yeah, you _are_ old enough to drink now, aren't ya?" He snickered. "Not that age ever stopped you before. Sure. What's your poison?"

"Cream soda. They've got Dr. Brown's."

"Oh, yeah? Damn, I haven't had a good cream soda in … damn. I can't _remember_ when."

"Well now's your chance." She appropriated his arm and steered him toward the arcade entrance. "Thanks for coming, by the way."

"No problem. I just hope my alarm doesn't go off before you get done showing me whatever it is you've got."

"It shouldn't take too long." They stopped in front of the order counter. She held two fingers up in front of the thin redhead opposite and said, "Dr. Brown's."

"Izzat root beer or …"

"Cream soda."

"Gotcha." And shortly he handed them their drinks. "At'll be six-fifty."

Victor raised an eyebrow. "For two drinks?"

Jinx waved him off. "I got it, don't worry about it." She handed the kid a ten and he passed her the change back.

Sipping their drinks with great relish, they walked briskly away from the pier and over toward a much more deserted area. She led him into a series of run-down buildings and narrow alleys, a formerly-pleasant neighborhood that marked a transition phase between the docks and an industrial zone, and ducked into one of the more dubious-looking structures. He followed warily. Her, he trusted; the regulars here, not so much.

Stopping in a bare room about seven or eight meters square, she closed and locked the door. Victor noted that she used a new padlock to secure it. "You use this place much?"

"Not for a long time. But I remembered how convenient it was to the pier, and it seemed logical." She rubbed her hands together. "Now. Let's see about some convincement."

Chuckling at her coinage, he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.

She pulled her wallet out … only it wasn't her wallet. With his eyes growing rounder by the second, he watched as she unfolded it, and unfolded it again, and unfolded it again … and unfolded it _again!_ After a couple more iterations, she was holding a large valise, and victor's jaw was threatening to brush the floor.

"How the hell …"

"Just hush and watch."

Setting the broad-bottomed bag on the dirty concrete, she reached down into it – a lot farther down than Victor thought was possible – and pulled out a small, square device. "Hey, Vic, you ever watch Underdog as a kid?"

"What, that old cartoon?"

"Yeah. With Simon bar Sinister and that wimpy bitch, Sweet Polly."

"Sure did! Underdog was hella badass."

"Remember Tennessee Tuxedo?"

"… Tennessee … Oh, wait! That penguin?"

"Yep. And his pal …"

"Chumly! Right." He got a very puzzled expression at that. "What does that have to do with …"

"So if you remember Tennessee Tuxedo, you probably remember Professor Whoopie."

"… Yeah, I think so … old fart they always went to for answers?"

"You remember the 3DBB?"

That drew a long, blank stare.

"Three-dimensional black board. He used it to illustrate his answers."

"Oh! Got it, yeah. It was always in his closet, which always crashed on him."

Jinx gave the device she held a slight shake. "You're lookin' at the 3DBB." Then she proceeded to hang it up in mid-air and pull on its sides until it was about a meter high by two wide.

Victor walked over and stood in front of it. "This thing magic or tech?"

"Yep."

That reply earned her the Evil Eye. "It's both? How can it be both?"

"Easier than you might think. Remember what Arthur C. Clarke said about technology?"

"… Uh …"

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

"Oh. Huh. Okay, I guess, maybe to a primitive, but …"

"Primitive is relative, Stone. You know how a transwarp drive works?"

He stuttered a time or two, then blew his cheeks out and admitted that he didn't.

"So as far as you're concerned, it's just as much magic as Rae's teleportation, right?"

"Except that I already know it's tech. I just don't grasp the math."

"Maybe magic is just higher math."

"But magic goes against the laws of physics!"

"Oh, you mean like a physical constant? Like, say, the speed of light?"

"Transwarps don't exceed the speed of light, they just, uh … well, they …"

Shooting him in the forehead with a triumphant smile, she said, "Yes? What do they do?"

"Well, they don't make the ship go faster than light!"

"But that's what it looks like. Am I right?"

"Humph."

"Look, Vic, all I'm sayin' is that the line between what some people consider magic and others consider tech can get pretty damn blurred. And this thing is a prime example." She turned back to the floating board and continued, "Now pay attention."

The board's surface was a hazy, medium silvery-gray, like dense fog backlit through a window. As he watched, shapes began to form.

"All righty, then. I understand you were on-hand when Rae's ol' man showed up."

He gave her a nod. "Yeah. That was completely horrible. From what we managed to dig outta Rae later, things were touch and go for a while. But because she was created as a portal, she was able to suck his own power out of him and then use it against him. Ended up, she either destroyed his … essence or spirit or something, or banished it to some unreachable dimension. We don't know which."

"It's the first one. He's gone. Unwound. Dead, if you like."

"And how would you know?"

She pointed at the board, and Victor did a double-take. Raven stood on a sheer promontory, facing a storm-tossed ocean of blood from whence Trigon the Terrible was rising. Quickly the scene moved along. He loomed over her, immense and obscene. His power was absolute, and he would first crush this planet, absorbing its energies, then move on to the next, and the next, each one falling more easily than the last, until he had consumed the entire dimension. She stood, defying him, her skin now a sooty black, covered in glowing red sigils. But then she thrust her arms out, and matching marks on Trigon's frame glowed in answer. Everywhere that a sign appeared on him, he began to crack, and from those cracks poured devastation. Blight and despair and death and pain and ultimate sorrow were given physical form; they fled, shrieking from his presence, and as they fled, he shrank. Power, a white tsunami that filled the scene to both horizons, burst forth, flowed and swirled and coalesced, falling into the tiny girl on the cliff. Trigon reached out, trying to swat her away, but could not touch her. He began to fade, to wither, to cease to be, and with an unbelievably deafening lack of sound, reality split. What had been was then unmade. The Earth returned to its former state. And Raven was falling, falling …

"Shit." It was a whisper just barely escaping his lips.

"And that's the end of Act One."

"I don't remember that!"

"'course you don't. Your memory got re-made. Just like everybody else's."

"Then how is … this board thing … I don't …"

"That's the magic part. If you know what you want to see and you know when it happened, this board can tell you. This thing," and she rapped it with a knuckle, "is probably the most powerful magical artifact I've ever run across. It may be the most powerful one in this dimension."

"Then how the hell did _you_ end up with it?"

"Why, Victor! I do believe I am insulted."

"No, it's just … I mean, shit, Jinx! This is …"

"Awesome?"

"That wasn't exactly the word I wanted, but I guess it'll do. Seriously, how'd you get it?"

"I stole it. Thief, remember?"

"Yeah, but … damn …"

"Okay, see it was like this." She gave him a narrow look. "What all did Raven tell you about our chat?"

"Not a whole lot. That you wanted her help to fight a demon."

She nodded. "She tell you about the spear and the atlatl?"

"… The museum robbery?"

"Yeah. I got commissioned to steal 'em. At the time I didn't know who was payin' the bills or why he wanted 'em, so I went for it. I'd been planning to go straight for … for a while …" She looked away and swallowed, took a deep breath and turned back to him. "But he offered me eighty grand to do the job. I thought it over and decided that one more job, just to get some dusty ol' museum pieces for that kind of money, was too good a chance to pass up. So I went for it. But then you guys showed up. Well, Raven, anyhow. And she … well, she stopped me."

"And this is connected, how?"

"I got a call the very next morning, telling me that my services were no longer required. I asked for one more chance, but he just hung up. Then it hit me that I hadn't given this guy my home number, and I got spooked. High-tailed it into the slums. If he knew my number, he probably knew where my apartment was, and he might be the sort that didn't like loose ends."

"That sounds like a valid fear."

"Right. Anyhow, I got real curious as to just who the guy was, and I started snooping. I can lay pretty damn low when I want to, and I can be persuasive if it's called for. So I found out a thing or three and got worried. Then there was that fire at the museum, and son of a gun if the very same spear and atlatl I was supposed to steal got 'lost' in the blaze."

Victor frowned. He hadn't made that connection.

"I tracked down the guy who did it. Meta who went by AfterShock."

"Oh, him! We caught him once. What an asshole."

"He was that."

"Was?"

"Uh-huh. Remember what I said about loose ends?"

He nodded.

"I traced him, went to see him, got him good and drunk and on the outside of a couple of totally _righteous_ blunts, and he told me what he knew. It didn't make me feel any better. Checked it all out. Guy behind it all was goin' around all over the planet, having things stolen … or sometimes bought. Lotta the things he got were legit. But I started to see a pattern."

"Wait. You _were_ … what were you doin'?"

"Oh, sorry, I skipped that part. AfterShock ended up dead two days after I talked to him."

That bit of news made Victor's skin crawl. "How?"

"It took the coroner a while to piece it together, but somebody … some_thing_ … turned him inside out."

Under his hologram, Victor went slightly green. "How the hell …"

"Yeah. Exactly. The question was: which one?"

"… Which one what?"

"Which hell. This is about a demon, remember?"

"Oh."

"So I got real good and busy. Investigated the museum fire, which ain't somethin' that's easy to do when the cops want to chat with you. Figured out the name of the guy doin' the buying, and started stalkin' him. Then I had me a real nice piece of luck. I guess I likely _used up_ my quota of good luck for the decade, but I stumbled across one of this guy's caches. He'd rented a piece of a warehouse and was loadin' the stuff in it. He was only maybe half-done and hadn't taken the time to set up the wards like he should have. Heh. He didn't make _that_ mistake again. Anyhow, I sneaked in while his goons were busy and hid myself in one of the crates. After it was full, _**then**_ he put on the fancy wards and guards. When he was done, not only would nobody be able to break in, nobody would be able to find it in the first place. He was very thorough. But I was already inside, and the way he set the wards, I was considered an artifact. So I was invisible to the protective magic. That gave me all the time I needed to go through his little collection and relieve him of some of the more useful tools."

"Like that bag?"

"Uh-huh, and this board, and several other cute little gems."

"That's all very impressive, but what does it have to do with a demon?"

"The big guy doin' the collecting? Name's Dorno Velez-al'Aziz."

His frown told Jinx that didn't ring any bells.

"Guy's a sorcerer, and a damn good one. He's about two hundred years old. And he has what you might call a patron."

"Patron?"

"Yep." She indicated the board again, which was roiling in deep blackness shot with red and yellow flame. "This character."

The view cleared, came into focus, and Victor was looking into a supremely ugly visage that sported lengthy lower canines and four glowing, red eyes. He started and took a step back. "Shit!"

"Say hello to Neron."

"… Who?"

"Trigon's nephew. And a total pain in my ass."

####

Kori and Richard were off at the Japanese embassy. Vic was still out on patrol. Neither would be back for a couple more hours. This was as good a time as any.

Knowledge had some theories she wanted to bat around. Wisdom needed to discuss some insights. And it had been several days since last she made the rounds of her Emotions. She unlimbered the mirror again …

The yellow-cloaked Aspect didn't even give her a chance to take a deep breath before pouncing. "One thing I would like to accomplish this time is to go over again what we know so far."

"Very well. But let me run this by you first: that cave we found, where the box was hidden? Did you notice anything special about the surroundings?"

"Such as?"

"I don't know. Did the ground look different? Did it seem as if it had come from somewhere else, or did it look like it belonged there?"

Knowledge thought that one over and slowly shook her head. "I cannot recall. I have not been searching in that area, and have not been back to that cave. But it is a good question. Shall we go there and find out?"

They shortly arrived at the location and Raven ducked and entered. The candle still burned, which surprised and shocked her. Turning to Wisdom, she asked, "What do you make of that?"

"I would say off hand that it is significant as opposed to accidental or unintentional. As if it is telling you there is more to find."

Looking around the tiny chamber showed her nothing. She examined the table, which appeared to be about as rude an item of furniture as she'd ever seen: three legs made of peeled limbs stuck into a thick section of log less than a meter across. She knocked on the surface, which sounded as solid as it looked. Then she peered closely at the candle.

The holder in which it rested seemed to be made of bronze, a simple but elegant design that incorporated a stylized arrow motif. She touched it. It felt cool, about like it should, and weighty. She picked it up, and then noticed that the arrows were separate pieces and were attached with tiny chains. As she held it, they began to quiver. Her heart sped up. Slowly, the arrows lifted, and all three of them pointed at the back wall of the chamber.

Barely containing her excitement, she held the candle closer to the wall. The arrows strained, pulling at her hand, and she allowed it to guide her. Then, as when two magnets cross an invisible barrier, it was pulled completely out of her hand and smacked into the wall, which promptly shivered and vanished, taking the candle with it.

Inside the smaller chamber revealed was another candle, and another box. Trembling, she used her power to bring it outside where all three of them could see it. Then she touched the bow …

*** * *  
****It has been three days since last I saw Jinx.**

**I am healed in body  
****but my mind and heart are  
****desperately troubled.  
****I must see her again.  
**_**I must!  
**_**I know she placed me against that chimney.  
****I know somehow  
****that she is trying  
****to spare  
****my feelings.  
****But I need to see her,  
****to talk to her …  
****to kiss her again.  
****I need this as I need to breathe.  
****I can think of nothing but  
****that hair and  
****those eyes and  
****those soft, soft lips.  
****I seek her.  
****But I cannot find her.  
***** * ***

*** * *  
She has found me.  
****I am on patrol.  
****As I fly past a building,  
****a flash of pink.  
****She is there.  
****She is waiting on me.  
****I fly to her  
****and she does not move,  
****does not offer resistance,  
****and I stop in front of her.  
****We look into each other's eyes.  
****I can see that she has been crying.  
****She can see the  
****heavy,  
****blunt  
****torment  
****in my heart.  
****She raises one hand hesitantly  
****and I run to her  
****and I capture that sweet, sweet mouth  
****and again I do not ever want it  
****to stop.**

**My world is in those lips,  
****those arms,  
****and she is taller than I, but slight,  
****svelte like a dancer,  
****and she fits against me  
****as nothing else ever could.  
****She dances in my heart,  
****and it sings to her in return.**

**But she pulls back  
****and I see she is crying again  
****and I ask her why.**

"**I am a criminal."  
****She says this as if that explains everything.  
**"**But I do not want to go to jail."**

**I tell her I will not **_**take**_** her to jail.**

**She shakes her head.  
**"**You're a hero.  
****You're the good guy.  
****I can't ask you  
****to be something you are not.  
****But  
****I had  
****to see you  
****before  
****I  
****left."**

**My mind freezes.  
****I cannot speak, much less  
****move.**

**She looks at me with a  
****longing  
****neither of us can express.  
****Then she turns to leave.**

**I grab her with my soul-self.  
****No!  
****I don't want you to leave!  
****I … I love you!**

**And she says,  
**"**That's why I have to leave."**

**I don't understand anything  
****except the pain I feel.  
****Does she not love me back?  
****I **_**thought**_** that she did, but …  
****But, no!  
****I can **_**feel**_** it,  
****running through her  
****like a river of lightning!  
****She **_**does**_** love me.  
****And  
****it is killing her.**

**She reaches a hand to my cheek.  
**"**We are too different,  
****you and I.  
****I am … not really suited  
****for a normal life.  
****Neither are you.  
****But our not-normal lives  
****are too different.  
****I don't know how to do anything  
****except steal and hurt.  
****And I will have  
**_**no part  
**_**of hurting you.  
****That's why I have to go."**

**I let my soul-self vanish and she lands gracefully on the roof.  
****Grace is in her spirit like a warm, soft breeze.**

**I cannot lose you.**

**She only shakes her head.**

**I become angry.  
****It is not **_**fair!  
**_**We only just **_**found**_** each other!**

**She gives a shaky and heartfelt sigh.  
**"**Life is not fair. Not to me, anyhow."  
****Her lip trembles  
****and she rushes into my arms again.  
**"**I will never forget you."**

**Where will you go?**

"**A long way away. Far away from the hurt."**

**I think that hurt will follow.  
****It will follow us both.**

**She brushes a lock of hair  
****away from my face.  
**"**I'll deal.  
****That's how I've gotten on in life  
****up to now.  
****Just put my head down and  
****bull on through."**

**I don't want you to leave.**

**And she says,  
**"**I don't **_**want**_** to leave.  
****But, see,  
****this is the part  
****where you want something,  
****and then you don't get it."**

**She leans in and kisses me one more time.  
****Then she vaults backward off the roof.  
* * ***

The Tower's general alarm woke Raven from her dead slumber. Nightwing's voice over the intercom said, "It's a free-fire zone over in Cobb Park! Let's go, Titans!"

She sat up groggily, rubbed her hands against her face, and called her cape to her. It was going to be a long, long night.


	3. Chapter 3 Magic

**ENEMY OF MY ENEMY**

_[Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans. Earth-shaking news, I know, but what can I say? Oh, and by the way, lest it escape your notice, there are many instances of not-quite-canonicity in this story. Get used to it.]_

_**Chapter Three - Magic**_

Okay. Here's the thing about magic. (And pay attention, 'cause there'll be a test later.) It comes in five major varieties: Innate, Glamour, Psychic, Sorcery, and Natural. Innate magic is the kind that most magical creatures have, things like dragons and manticores and pixies and stuff. It's also the most powerful, by a damn sight, which is why you _**do **__**not**_ screw around with dragons. Bad juju, short lifespan. Honestly, the idea that some armored guy with a long stick on a horse could present any kind of danger to a dragon is just … well, funny. But that's another story.

Where was I? Oh, yeah. Glamour. That was, I guess you could say, invented by the Fae. Yeah, I know they mainly fall into the 'Innate' category as a race, but Glamour is something extra, mainly because mortals can learn to use it, too. Basically, it's illusion magic, but sometimes it can be a lot stronger than just an illusion, and I mean a _hell_ of a lot stronger. That Doppelganger spell I used on Raven? All Glamour, baby! My own brand of hexing is a roughly equal mix of Glamour and Psychic magic, and if I do say so myself, I'm pretty badass.

But, yeah, and what most people think of when they think 'Psychic' is palm readers and gypsies with crystal balls and shit like that. And … yeah, well, okay, they do fall into that class. Clairvoyance and telepathy and precognition, stuff like that. Mostly those guys just stay frustrated 'cause it's hard to focus and the results are usually hazy. Usually. I did meet this one chick one time who knew – and I mean _knew_ – what was gonna happen in the next hour or so. She was one _dangerous_ bitch. If she'd had a mean streak … eh. She got into the stock market for a few weeks, made a bajillion bucks, and disappeared. Probably bought herself an island somewhere.

But then, if you mix Psychic magic with Sorcery, you get some _**truly**_ scary crap. Pyrokinetics and t-k and mind-control and folks that can fly and teleport and stuff. You know, like Raven? Yeah, she's all about the Psychic Sorcery combo. Like I said: scary. And she hardly ever even taps the surface.

But really, a just-plain-vanilla Sorcerer is bad enough. See, the thing is that with most baseline humans, even ones that have some degree of aptitude for the Craft, doing any more than just dabbling in it puts your sanity on the line, big-time. It's not that Sorcerers always become evil, it's that if they really get into it, you know give up everything else to study it, they almost always go nuts, and when you've got a lunatic with god-powers … yeah, fill in the blanks. They try stupid stuff, like challenging a dragon, or transforming into one, and the dragons don't much care for that. That's why I don't worry about Raven, though. She's a half-demon, and pretty much immune to the down-side. And demons – all the spirit-beings, really – fall outside these categories. A demon or angel or djinn can use any or all of the various magic types, and how well they work depends almost completely on the individual's personal power level. That's why Trigon was such bad news when he came knocking.

But _anybody_ can use Natural magic. That's why it's called 'Natural', right? That's stuff like where some herbs have healing powers, and some crystals are just better for scrying or help with protection spells, and some metals are resistant to Sorcery, and then there's the ley-lines that wrap the whole damn planet. With a little training, anyone can tap into a ley-line and use the mana to add focus or strength to a spell or a potion or a charm. That's the plus side. The back of the coin is all those little imp-type things you hear about in mythology. You know the ones? Kobolds and vampires and ghouls and trolls and weres?That ilk? Yeah, _they_ all know how to use Natural magic, too, and they've been doing it a **LOT** longer than humans have. Why d'ya think trolls are so strong? It ain't because they eat their spinach, bub. No, they park their carcasses on a ley-line every night and soak up the power. Stupid things, but I sure don't wanna meet one anytime soon. (And, yes, to answer that question you're just dying to ask, trolls are real. Like I said before,_**all**_ this shit is real. It just flies under the radar most of the time.)

So. The different kinds of magic have different levels of … you could call it affinity, I guess. Sorcery just pairs up real nice with Psychic and Natural magic. Innate magic goes with Natural and Glamour. But Glamour and Sorcery?Nah, not so much. They're too different, and the two kinds of magic tend to work at cross-purposes. That ain't to say that somebody couldn't ever combine the two into one spell … it would just be more trouble than it was worth. Same goes with Psychic and Natural, or Sorcery and Innate. The creatures that use (are?) Innate magic kinda look down their snouts at Sorcery and Psychic magic, like it's beneath them to even consider using it. And, hell, it may be. Like _they_ need to use anything else.

And I was pullin' your leg about the test. It's no skin off my nose if you remember this shit or not.

So. What else? Oh, yeah, I thought it went really well with Stone this afternoon. Neron spooked him, but good. Think I've got me a convert. Now I just hope he can talk to Rae and get her to have a look, too. Or at least leave all my internal organs in their present locations. 'cause if I have to do this demon-battle shtick all on my own hook, magic-wise, it _ain't _gonna be pretty.

Okay, so now … um, yeah, that's right! Gotta check in with the Bones, find out my next move. Laters!

####

_*Cobb Park, 19:45*_

_Some days,_ Raven mused, _I'd give a lot for a good old-fashioned tussle with the H.I.V.E. Five._ This thought crossed her mind quickly, being somewhat busy dodging bullets.

Gang activity was a constant worry these days, and had occupied most of the Titans' attention over the last several months. The bangers were typically young, uneducated, and vicious, and had basically nothing to offer society … nothing positive, that is. They offered a _lot_ of grief and difficulty for any neighborhood they happened to infest. And there always seemed to be a steady supply of them, no matter how many got arrested.

It had gotten so bad in some parts of the city that a couple of unaffiliated vigilantes showed up to combat them. The Titans hadn't met either of them yet, but they sure did _hear_ a lot about them. Raven was convinced that one of them was a meta, probably a telekinetic of some variety. He (or she) kept a very low profile, and took down the perps without ever revealing so much as a glimpse. The other one – the more dangerous one – was most likely a baseline human, but one with military training, a fondness for limited-effect explosives, and some mad martial arts skills … and no hesitation about maiming or killing the gangbangers. He kept vigil over a nine-block area at the southern end of downtown. The Crips and the Bandidos put an even ten grand each on his head. The police had several warrants out for him, but not a single one of the residents was willing to give them any information; none of his victims was _able_ to. Detective Harris, who was leading that investigation, referred to him as The Ghost.

Yes, Raven knew all this; she just didn't have time to think about it right now.

The gangs' increasingly frequent use of automatic weapons had forced Raven to adapt, and she'd done so via magic. So far, it worked well. Her cloak, tee-shirt, vest, and slacks were all made of a special silk that was not normally available in this dimension (but she had connections). It lent itself to Sorcerous manipulation, and readily accepted such magic into itself. The runes she used were subtle, and any observer would have to know where to look and know what to look for, but each article of clothing now carried enough magic warding that no projectile of base metal could penetrate it. That isn't to say the impact wouldn't smart, but she didn't have to worry about getting perforated. Mainly she relied on shields she crafted from her soul-self, and in this she had achieved mastery.

Now, after much time practicing in their training yard, she could reflexively produce and angle her shields so that the incoming slugs ricocheted off at a shallow angle. That allowed her to handle an automatic fire rate without strain, and occasionally she was able to direct the fire right back at her attackers.

That was another "new" thing the Titans were dealing with. While most super-villains tended to adhere to a sort of rough justice, showed something of a grudging respect for their foes, and usually didn't go out of their way to try to kill them, the gangbangers had no such compunction. Adapting to this mindset, the team learned, meant that sometimes they had to be at least _willing_ to take human life. None of them wanted this. But war is war; it involves killing, it always has, and likely always will. When confronting ignorant thugs who _enjoyed _taking the lives of innocent people, and had the firepower on hand to overwhelm a SWAT team, they reluctantly realized that they couldn't pull their punches anymore.

####

_* elsewhere, earlier *_

Mario closed the door behind him and carefully locked it before making his way deeper into the building. It wouldn't do to have anyone not directly involved stumble onto what they were up to. This scheme, if it worked, would be a real game-changer; it would put them back on top, where they belonged, and then they could grease the rest of the Crips and the Bandidos at their leisure.

Ernesto had begun his trance meditation, the other eleven already around him, when Mario got to the Assembly. He drew a short, sharp object from his vest and laid it on the table in front of their shaman beside the others, taking his place in the Circle and taking up the low chant that was already in progress.

Many minutes passed. Lit censors ranged around the room gradually filled it with sweet, narcotic smoke, and the gang members' collective trance deepened. Then, gradually, the smoke collected in a dark pool over the table. Small, bright lightnings began sparking in its depths, some of them reaching down to the objects lined up on the table. This went on for the better part of an hour until each one achieved a soft, red glow, whereupon the smoke suddenly dissipated, and the chant stopped. Ernesto fell over; they knew he'd be out of commission for several hours, but they had accomplished their objective. Mario watched as Jacinto, Ernesto's right-hand man, gathered the bolts and placed them into a specially warded quiver. Then he hefted a heavy crossbow, grinned at the other gang members, and said, "Tonight. We will call them tonight, and when they come, they will see that the Titan witch is not the only one who can make the magic!"

####

_*Cobb Park, 19:47*_

The Titans weren't sure just yet which two gangs were trying to snuff each other this time. The players changed constantly and no one published a program, so they usually went into these things _reeeeal_ short on information. There were some dozen or fifteen heavily-armed bangers barricaded inside a gazebo pavilion, and maybe a score out under the trees trying to kill them. Robin got a quick update from the two beat cops who were currently hiding behind their squad car – reinforcements were on the way, but still minutes off – and then split up the team to their various duties in this little shindig. Kori shot straight up, disappearing into the gloom; Cyborg powered up his brand-spanking-new sonic shield and zipped over to get behind the largest concentration of assailants he could see; Nightwing pulled a birdarang and melted into the trees; and Raven got the plum job of taking out the group in the gazebo.

Actually, she didn't mind. She'd trained, and trained hard, for an occasion just such as this. The only real difficulty would come in getting over to the gazebo's roof, when she'd be exposed to the other gang's decidedly unfriendly fire. Thus her 'enhanced' outfit. Starfire very much approved of the change; she had grinned broadly and said it made Raven look 'hot'. The empath had to work hard to suppress the blush that wanted to creep up her cheeks after that comment.

Nevertheless, aside from a couple of grazing almost-hits, she made it to the relative safety of the roof unscathed, the inky blackness of her shield keeping her from being an obvious target. Settling into the cupola, she drew her shield more closely around herself and effectively vanished. Her mind opened to the presence of those below and, as expected, all fourteen of them were crouched behind their barricades, aiming and firing at those in the wood who so ardently desired their demise. After a few seconds she blew a disgusted breath and shook her head. _Drugs? You're joking! This is all over who gets to sell __**crack**__ to a bunch of __**losers?**__ Give me a break!_ Not for the first time did she wish that The Powers That Be would just go ahead and de-criminalize all that crap, slap a hefty tax on it (similar to, oh, say, tobacco? or maybe whiskey?) and regulate it to within a millimeter of its life. That would at least keep most of the money out of the hands of the gangs, and perhaps then they wouldn't be _quite_ so well-armed!

Stilling her mind again, she prepared her attack …

####

_* Jinx's hotel room, somewhat earlier *_

"… Bones … Bones … dammit, where'd you … ah!" Triumphantly she pulled a small leather bag from the recesses of her folding valise and plopped herself down onto the carpet at the foot of the bed. Pouring the objects in question out into her hand, she studied them briefly.

Technically, they weren't made of bone; they were ivory, hand-carved from the tusk of an extinct marine mammal into the semblance of wrist bones, only somewhat smaller. The craftsman who fashioned them belonged to a race that had been forgotten long before early humans discovered fire. Consequently, the figures carved into them belonged to no known language group; but Jinx knew their secrets. Deep yellow with age, these runes had had nearly thirty thousand owners in their long, long history. She took a large sheet of paper, spread it on the floor in front of her, and carefully cast them.

The first reading didn't seem to make any sense. "Magic arrows? What the hell?" The surrounding guidance runes weren't much help. She scratched her head, stood, and closed her eyes, feeling for the ley-line that she knew passed through this room. "Ah. It moved. Okay." Repositioning herself in front of the door to the tiny bathroom, she again laid out the paper and cast the runes.

This one was much clearer. There was a distinct reference to Raven, which is what she was after, and the guidance runes at the cardinal points all hinted at danger … and there was that thing about arrows again! The skin prickled on her neck.

She thought this over a minute or two and swept the Bones back into their bag. Then she pulled out a worn deck of Tarot cards, shuffled them while chanting a short incantation, and quickly flipped a reading out onto the bedspread. Her eyes narrowed to mere slits: The Tower was in prime position, The Magician, inverted, below it. The Eight of Swords exerted dominance from the right, The Chariot, inverted, from the left. The implications made her skin crawl.

"Shit." Leaving the cards where they lay, she dug again into the valise and pulled out a small plastic bag containing some dark-purple hairs and a very nice convex lens of clearest quartz, slightly larger than her palm. Removing one of the few remaining hairs from the bag, she quickly closed it and returned it to the valise; then she placed the hair on the crystal lens and muttered a few choice words. The hair vanished in a puff of smoke, and a hazy scene took shape in the crystal. Holding her breath as she watched, the figures and objects soon clarified, and impressed into her mind was the location of the vision: Cobb Park.

"Shit-_fuck!_ That's on the other side of the city!" Not for the first time did she wish she had Raven's ability to teleport, and cursed the lack vehemently as she grabbed the valise and made her way down to the parking lot in impossibly long bounds and drops.

####

_*Cobb Park, 19:48*_

Raven considered her targets. Those below her were, in fact, members of a notorious Central-American gang; their rivals were an outlaw motorcycle gang that had broken off from the Bandidos because the parent organization wasn't ruthless enough to suit them. To a man, the only life each counted as worth anything was his own. But that life, each would sell very dearly, indeed, and they had the armaments to back that up. Three smoldering holes in the tree-line opposite attested to the RPGs they had unlimbered when the other gang suddenly appeared and started shooting. They knew several of the ex-Bandidos were already dead, as were three of their own. It was now, while the one who wielded the launcher was again taking aim at the muzzle flashes under the trees, when a creature of nightmare and lunacy dropped among them. The thing was squat, black as the depths of space, and gave vent to a soul-chilling cry as it spread scaly arms tipped with many, many talons.

The men screamed, and turned, and fired and fired and fired at the thing in their midst … the thing which was but a figment of their collective imagination, made of bad dreams and shadow, and completely insubstantial.

In a bare handful of seconds, it was over. Nine of the gang lay dead, riddled with their own bullets; three were severely wounded and unconscious. While she crouched there above them, Raven felt the other two freak out and start jabbering frantically. Calmly she reached into their minds and turned up the volume on the panic knob. Both of them shrieked and jumped out of the gazebo, firing wildly, and were promptly cut down by their enemies. Nodding, she pulled out her T-Com and pressed a button.

That was the signal the others had waited on. Now that they wouldn't have to worry about stray fire from the gazebo, they could concentrate on taking out the rest. The remainder of the battle was very short. Baseline humans, even those that were well-trained, were after all rather delicate creatures. Flesh and bone were no match for field-effect explosions and starbolts and sonic cannons. By the time the police pulled up less than two minutes later, the combatants – those still alive – were laid out in a neat line on the ground in front of the gazebo.

Nightwing turned to the rest of the team. "The cops'll want a lot of details on this one. You guys can go on back to the Tower if you want. I got this."

"Unless your desire is otherwise, I would like to stay here with you," said Starfire with a hopeful air.

A grin gave her his answer, and she appropriated his arm. "Okay, then, I guess we'll see _you two _later."

Raven glanced over at Victor. "Are you ready to head back, or is there anything you need to do while we're close to downtown?" Her tone indicated her preference loud and clear.

"Got somethin' weighin' on your mind, Rae?"

"I really need to meditate. Even when death is as richly deserved as it was here tonight, I find the process distasteful and rife with stress."

"Okay. I get that." _Well, crap, she's not gonna be wantin' to talk about this whole Jinx-and-demon thing for a while, looks like._

But Raven wasn't the most powerful empath on the planet for nothing. Even though she made a point of _**not**_ poking around in people's heads, she could tell when they first arrived that there was something bothering the big cyborg. Sighing, she laid a hand on his arm. "You have something to say, though, don't you?"

Chuckling self-consciously, he gave her a sheepish grin. "If it ain't too much to put on ya, it'd be nice. It ain't no _little_ thing, though. If you need to meditate … well, I guess it'll keep."

A reassuring pat let him know that she understood. "It's early yet. If I can meditate effectively, we might still be able to discuss what's on your mind later tonight. Would that be all right?"

"Sure! But don't rush things because of me. I know how …"

"Trust me, Vic, I won't." An inky black shroud wrapped the two of them in a close embrace, and then vanished.

####

From the edge of an alley some two blocks from the entrance to Cobb Park, Jacinto ground his teeth in frustration. Not a single one of the other group would answer his radio calls, and that could only mean that they were incapacitated … or dead. He knew they'd never let the pigs get to them. He knew what kinds of weapons they carried, knew their skills. Had a rival gang ambushed them? Had the Titans come early?

His scout came scurrying back, face set in a grim line, and Jacinto wasn't all that surprised to hear him say, "Dead."

"All?"

"All. Muhfuckin' bikers were waitin', an' they rumbled, but then the Titans showed up. Took out e'ybody."

"They still there?"

"Two of 'em. Leader an' that alien bitch."

One of the others said, "Heard he's tappin' that fine ass now."

"Fuck that shit. We gettin' some payback, before they get away!" The rest voiced their agreement. The dozen gangbangers moved quickly but stealthily toward the park.

####

_*Titans Tower, 19:54*_

Very little time passed before Raven was floating in the air over her bed, eyes closed, muttering her mantra to herself. She considered (very briefly) going back in to discuss things with her emotions, but quickly decided that she wasn't ready for that yet. In the first place, what she'd said to Victor was the bare truth. She really _did_ need to meditate over the loss of life that evening, even if – or _especially_ if – the loss was justified. It was a hard thing for her, this war they found themselves in. It took a toll on her psyche. She didn't like to believe that so many humans could be so … well, there wasn't a better word for it. So evil. The minds she'd felt just a handful of minutes earlier were thoroughly, poisonously evil, being fully preoccupied with the pursuit of vice and the execution of pain and mayhem. The Titan had done the world a favor by removing them from society. They would never amount to anything, individually, and clumped into a gang they only multiplied the wickedness.

But knowing that empirically, and internalizing it fully, were two very different things. She hated taking life. _Hated_ it. That's why she didn't attack the gang directly, going instead for their fears and then allowing them to react naturally. It helped her sleep.

####

_*Cobb Park, 19:55*_

There was no warning. There rarely ever was.

One second the two Titans were briefing the police sergeant on the recent events, and the next they were under a withering fire. Of the eight officers present, only two were alive after the first volley. Starfire caught a couple of rounds in her upper back, but they were standard hollow-points, not jacketed, so all they did was tear her skin a little … and get her _thoroughly_ pissed off. Nightwing's exoskeleton stopped four rounds, but they hit him almost simultaneously from the same direction, and the simple force of the impacts drove him to his knees.

The Titans and the two remaining officers skipped quickly over to take shelter behind a cruiser. Given the frequency of heavy-caliber (or energy-based) weaponry that the criminal element used in Jump City, the law enforcement leadership had, for once, responded with accuracy and thoughtfulness. The old cruisers were scrapped and replaced with state-of-the-art vehicles that offered some real protection for the patrol cops. They'd stop cold any solid projectile less effective than a fifty-caliber high-power, and would absorb quite a bit of laser or microwave radiation before failing, so the four of them weren't too worried, at least not from that quarter. One of the cops had a belt radio and immediately called for backup, and Nightwing pulled out his T-Com. Starfire, her jaw set, shot straight up, intent on bringing the battle to their attackers.

####

_*Titans Tower, 19:56*_

She wasn't really even comfortable yet. She'd only intoned her mantra three times. That's when the image hit.

Shortly before the unpleasantness involving her sire, Raven and Richard had been through a particularly harrowing episode wherein he almost died. She installed a tiny piece of her soul inside him; it was the only way she could think of at the time to save his life, and it worked. But ever since, they shared a link, a special bond. Any time one of them was in mortal peril, the other would know. So, before Victor had even had a chance to answer the emergency signal from his T-Com, Raven appeared in front of him, wrapped them both in a cloak of non-light, and pulled them through that Otherwhere back to the Park.

####

_*Cobb Park, 19:56*_

Jacinto knew the SWAT team would be along in not that many minutes. They'd already pegged six badges, so they could call the night a success if it came to that. But he wanted the Titans, or at least one of them. He'd seen Nightwing take cover behind a cruiser, but he couldn't be sure of a shot, and they only had seven of the special bolts for his tactical compound crossbow. Starfire, on the other hand, was a better possibility.

The Tamaranean was well-known for her volatile temper. If he could get her worked up enough to get close enough for a decent shot …

They didn't actually have to work on that very hard; she was incensed already, and starbolts began peppering the attacking gang members. They'd spread out in a thin line, the better to take angles on their shots, and the less of a target to present to return fire. Striking from cover as they were, Koriand'r had to follow their muzzle flashes, but that was enough. One ragged scream, and then another, indicated her success.

It was when she was taking a long, swooping loop past their line that the short, glowing missile came streaking up. Had it been an ordinary bolt she would hardly have noticed the light strike to her arm. But it wasn't. Pain of an intensity she couldn't quite grasp ran from the shallow cut like lava. With a wailing cry, she tumbled back toward the ground, hitting well on the other side of where the officers were taking cover. Jacinto crowed his jubilation, and then busied himself in cocking the crossbow for another shot.

####

_Sometimes it just pays to go first class._ Jinx would have patted herself on the back for choosing a rental car that had some muscle, had she not been so worried about Raven. She had a few minutes to put two and two together while speeding across town, and the 'four' she came up with put her stomach in knots. She only knew of three likely candidates to stand in for the 'magic arrows', and could pretty much dismiss one of them out of hand. That left Firedarts or Doombolts. Firedarts were easier to make, but it would take a powerful sorcerer to handle them, once constructed. She hadn't detected such a mage nearby (of course that didn't really mean there wasn't one) and so she put her money on Doombolts. Which would be very, very bad.

The sounds of the nearly-continuous gunfire reached her while still a couple of blocks away, and she floored it.

####

Raven and Cyborg stepped out of the dark shroud into heavy fire, and quickly hunkered down with the officers. He gave Nightwing an exasperated look and said, "Weren't we _**just**_ doing this?"

"More of 'em showed up. We got six officers down, and I think Kori got clipped. She went down over there." And he pointed back toward the trees.

Raven nodded. "I'll go get her." Darkness enveloped her, and she winked out, popping up out of the ground a hundred meters away. Casting about with her empathic ability, she instantly located her wounded teammate, flew over to her, and gathered her close. Then she 'ported them back to the others.

Cyborg, meanwhile, switched to his sonic cannon and started blowing away the opposition, one at a time. Then another of those glowing bolts came streaking out, passed through the cruiser, through his left thigh, and through the head of one of the crouching cops. Cyborg fell to the ground, and the cop flopped over, dead before he hit the dirt.

Nightwing jerked and hopped over. "Vic! What happened?"

"Dunno, man, my leg just stopped workin'. Feels damn funny." He pointed at the cop. "Whatever it was toasted him, but good."

Richard examined the small hole in Vic's leg, and the matching one in the cruiser's door panel. "They've got something that'll go straight through a _**car?**_"

"Looks like it."

Raven reappeared with an unconscious Kori. "She's in shock. I think she was magically attacked." Placing her hands on either side of her friend's head, Raven called up her healing aura. A blue glow surrounded them briefly and then Kori stirred. "Star! How do you feel?"

For an answer, the Tamaranean rolled over and threw up. Then she dragged a weak hand across her mouth and said, "Uhh … Truly, I have felt … better." Clasping her injured arm, she hissed in a breath. "My arm is … cold."

"Damn. Guys, this is bad. I think someone is using a sort of vampiric magic here. I've got it stopped, but it'll take more than just will power to really cure it."

Nightwing could feel the sweat break out across his brow. That was his _wife_ she was talking about! "What can we do to help?"

"I don't know yet. It seems to be some kind of life-draining charm."

Vic asked, "How's that explain my leg?"

"… Your leg?"

"Yeah, one o' them arrow things came through the car and went through my leg and then into that poor sap there. Now he's dead and my leg won't work."

Raven quickly examined the deceased officer. She shook her head and swore softly.

"What?"

"I think they're using Doombolts. That's _really _bad."

"What do we do?"

"**We** don't do anything. **I'm** going to go kill those bastards."

"… Kill 'em?"

"Anyone that would use Doombolts _needs_ killing." And she wrapped her inky cloak around her and shot into the air toward the gang …

… just in time to take a bolt through her ribs.

"_**Raven!"**_

####

No one had bothered to close the gates, giving Jinx a clear path over to where she could see four squad cars parked. As she sped into the Park, one bullet shattered the glass behind her and another found her left rear tire. Fishtailing madly, in a shower of sparks, she skidded to a stop in front of Raven's still form. Leaping out the passenger side, she scooped up the dark Titan and jumped over behind the cruisers. Cyborg gaped at her and said, "Jinx?"

Nightwing, suddenly very confused, said, "Jinx? What the hell …"

"Gods-damned Doombolts. Here." She tossed him something, which he caught, and then did a double take as the object elongated in his grip. She quipped, "Go get 'em."

He was having a little trouble processing things. "What? 'Get 'em?' Who …"

She pointed at the line of attackers. "I have to cure Raven. She'll _die_ if I don't start _**real**_ soon. _You_ go _kill_ those fuckers!"

"But …" he looked at the sword in his hand. "… a sword against automatic …"

"That's Excalibur, moron! You can't lose! Go! Kill! Wreak havoc, or whatever, but keep 'em busy and let me work!"

"… Excalibur?"

"Scram! Run! Now!" She turned her attention to the wounded girl gasping her life out on the ground and started unfolding her valise.

Another of the pale red arrows came singing through the cruiser, narrowly missing the sole remaining cop and disappearing into the darkness. Cyborg looked at his leader and said, "You're the sword guy. Better go for it."

And suddenly, holding the sword gave him an odd feeling of buoyancy. A grin creeping onto his face, he said, "Yeah. You're right." Then he leaped over the cruiser and ran at the line of murderers … moving faster than he ever had before. A _**lot**_ faster.

Victor watched as Jinx pulled several small objects from her magic bag. She lit a short, white candle and let the wax drip onto the charred hole in Raven's side. Dark red mist came boiling out. Then she began a chant, pressed a large jewel of some sort into the still-warm wax, and sprinkled a fine powder over the girl. Raven pulled a stuttering gasp and writhed in pain. "Vic, hold her still! This next part is kinda delicate."

He obliged, gripping Raven's arms and holding her steady against the pavement.

####

Jacinto had three bolts left and meant to make the most of them. Elated that he had hit two of the Titans – and thoroughly convinced they would both die – he hoped he could get the other two. Then, wonder of wonders, Nightwing came running toward them, swinging a great big sword and yelling his stupid head off. A feral grin plastered on his scarred features, he took careful aim at the approaching Titan, let go half a breath, and pulled. The bolt, like all the others, flew straight and true. But, just before impact, the Titan whipped the sword around … and _knocked the bolt away! _ It ricocheted instead back toward the line of killers, and through one of them. There were now only six of the gang left.

Jacinto's jaw fell. That couldn't be! Nothing material could stop it! No armor, no wall, nothing! He was still trying to wrap his brain around this impossible outcome when Excalibur parted his head from his neck.

####

Richard Grayson was in what he would later refer to as a berserk euphoria. Excalibur hadn't been in the grip of such a puissant warrior in many a year, and it wanted to make the most of it. The sword in his hand sang a siren song in his mind, drawing him on to battle, promising victory, and delivering it! He mowed his way up the line, dodging or deflecting the steady hail of automatic fire, the heady thrill of success like lightning in his blood, and he neither slowed nor stopped until no foes stood to challenge him. Holding the mighty weapon high, he cried, "For king and country!"

No one noticed. The only ones in the vicinity who were still alive didn't have the spare attention to care. The sole remaining cop climbed into his cruiser and started making frantically urgent calls.

####

Starfire's teeth began chattering. She curled up into a fetal position, but the others were too busy to notice.

The gem that Jinx had affixed to Raven's side was originally a light green. It quickly turned dark, then brown, then gray, and then it crumbled to dust. Raven gave vent to an agonized, bubbling moan as black ichor dripped from the corner of her mouth.

Jinx, cursing steadily under her breath, was feverishly mixing up a poultice. It only took her half a minute, but in that time Raven had gone nearly white, her breathing fast and shallow. Spreading the foul-smelling compound on the stricken girl's wound, she recited a powerful incantation. After narrowly staring at the results for a few seconds, she nodded and then said, "Vic, get Bird Boy back over here. I need that sword."

Cyborg levered himself up on one leg and waved at Nightwing, yelling for him to come over.

In just a few seconds, their leader arrived, leaping easily onto the top of the cruiser and brandishing the sword. "What ho! Be there more of the foe?"

"Foe? The hell? Dick, cut the shit and get down here, Raven's hurt bad and Jinx needs the sword to cure her!"

That statement seemed to finally make it through the knightly haze over Richard Grayson's mind. He shook his head a few times and jumped down. Blinking deliberately, he stuttered, "Wh-what … what just happened?"

Jinx held out her hand. "Sword! Now!"

He slapped it into her palm. She pressed the blade up against Raven's side and resumed her chant. The keen edge began to glow a soft yellow. Raven's color immediately improved.

"Oh, yeah!" said Cyborg. "That's the shit! You're doin' it, Pinky!"

At that point, Richard noticed his wife lying in a curled pile. "Kori!" He ran to her and cradled her head. "Honey, what's wrong?"

"… C-c-c-cold …"

Jinx noticed them and jogged over. "What is it?"

"Kori got clipped with one of those damn things! Raven started healing her, but …"

"Lemme see it."

Kori turned to show Jinx the scratch, which just barely broke the skin for about three centimeters.

Nodding, Jinx said, "Right, got it." She ran back to her bag and rummaged briefly. Zipping back over to the alien girl, she said, "Here, drink this."

Starfire obliged, making a wry face. "Uhhfff. What _**is**_ that?"

"You _really_ don't want to know. How do you feel?"

She worked her arm around a little and sat up. "Not so cold anymore." Her fingers found the cut, now closed, and she winced. "My arm hurts."

"It will for a while. But you ought to be okay now. Take it easy, though."

A few meters away, Raven groaned. Jinx ran back to her and examined the wound, making a worried noise. "This was a bad hit. It punctured a lung and broke a rib and I think a little piece of the bolt is still in there."

"Meaning what?" Victor asked.

"Meaning … hell. Man, I wish I had one of those Doombolts. Then I could …"

Richard said, "I think there were a few left."

Her head whipping around to pin him with a glare, Jinx said, "What? Serious? Where?"

He pointed to the spot where he'd encountered the first thug. "The guy had a crossbow. I think he had some extra …"

"Why are you still here? Go! Get 'em!"

Being given orders by a thief was starting to grate on Nightwing's nerves. But she was trying to save Raven's life, and that definitely took precedence over his pride. He sprinted over to the spot where the killer fell, quickly found the quiver containing the Doombolts, and hot-footed it back to the group.

Jinx pulled out one of the Doombolts, careful not to touch the point, and held it in her hand while muttering something they couldn't hear. Her mouth drew down in a grim line. "Bastards."

"Can you heal her?"

"I think so." She glanced around, and then pointed. "There's a water fountain." Quickly producing a small copper pot, she handed it to Richard and said, "Fill it up." He ran to comply.

Another short search of the valise brought to light a chunk of green chalk. With this she drew a circle around the injured Titan. Around the outside of that, she quickly sketched several complex runes, then enclosed those with a larger circle. Taking a small, silver knife, she pricked the ball of her left thumb and allowed a few drops of her blood to invest each of the sigils. It soaked in, and the emblems began to glow an eerie blue.

Richard returned with the water. Jinx took the pot and allowed some more of her blood to drip in, mixing with the contents. She balanced the pot on top of Excalibur and began a lengthy incantation. About halfway through, she took the Doombolt and slid it into the pot, which immediately started to bubble madly. Raven's wound took on a reddish glow, and slimy crimson tendrils climbed out of it and into the pot. The others watched in morbid fascination.

Gradually, the evil magic was pulled from the wound. The pot was giving off significant heat by then, and Jinx quickly set it off to the side. Raven drew a stuttering breath and her eyes fluttered open. "Ohhhhhh…"

"Rae?" Jinx got right into her face. "Can you hear me?"

The dark Titan swallowed and grimaced. "Don't … call me … Rae."

The erstwhile thief grinned in vast relief. "Whooo! She'll be okay. We need to get her into your sickbay, though."

Nightwing gave her a look. "What do you mean, 'we'?"

Cyborg dope-slapped him. "Cut her some slack, 'Wing! She's on our side."

He didn't answer, merely nodding, but thought, _"Jinx is on Jinx's side. She always was and always will be."_

####

_*Titans Tower sickbay, the next day*_

_. . . . . . . Once again she was facing down her father, but it wasn't going well and all her countermeasures were failing except that it wasn't really her father now, it was another demon, but he looked a lot like Trigon, and he had a swarm of minions with him and they grinned at her, anticipating how it would feel when their sharp, sharp teeth tore the flesh from her living bones, and now they were coming and they were firing things at her, throwing things at her that scorched and burned and she twisted, trying to get away from the furious, blinding pain, but nowhere was safe, nowhere could she turn that didn't spell her death, and a scream tore from her throat . . . . . . ._

"Raven!"

The dream pulled away in confusing bits and pieces. With a long gasp, she tried to sit up, but an acid-coated icepick in her side convinced her that was a bad idea, and she slumped back to the pillow. "Oh … ow … holy _shit_, that hurts!"

"Just remember, pain is your friend. That's how you know you aren't dead."

It dawned on the empath then that the voice speaking to her wasn't one she was accustomed to hearing. She opened her eyes and focused on … "Jinx? What the hell are …"

"And a very good afternoon to you! How does your head feel?"

"… Head …"

"Yes, that vaguely round thing on top of your neck. How's it feel?"

"… Like a soccer ball … after the World Cup. But how …"

"Hah! That good, huh?"

"… Good?"

"Hey, you're managing to hold up one end of a conversation, sort of, when yesterday you were about as close to dead as it's possible to be and still recover. By my lights, that's bleedin' _splendid_."

Raven closed her eyes against the antiseptic whiteness of the sickbay and concentrated on breathing for a few moments. At length she asked, "What happened?"

"You took a Doombolt to the chest. Zeroed a lung."

"… Doombolt … hellfire … I was right. Why am … I not … dead?"

"Because yours truly, as magical practitioners go, is totally _made_ of Win and Awesome, that's why."

"… _**You**_ … cured me?"

"Don't sound so shocked. It's not as if it was the first time." She chuckled a bit. "Of course, this time I had better equipment."

With a supreme effort, Raven reached out and grabbed Jinx by the wrist. The pink eyes widened in surprise, but she didn't pull away. After close to a minute of this silent tableau, Raven asked, "What did … you do … to my memory?"

A film of sadness came to rest over the thief's watchful gaze. "You figured it out, huh?"

"I know … you came up … with some way to … sequester … my memories. But … I don't … know how. You … you aren't … a telepath."

Her expression fading to basic 'nonplussed', Jinx tenderly took Raven's hand and answered, "That's an … _interesting_ observation. How much have you remembered?"

Biting her lip, Raven averted her eyes.

"Ah." The sadness was back. "That much, huh?"

"… I don't … have the whole story … yet."

"I might be able to help with that. If you want. You … you don't have to."

"Yes, I do!" This came out with enough conviction to startle the other girl. "I have to … be in possession of … all my memories. I'm not … not whole … not really … without them."

Nodding in understanding, Jinx patted the hand. "That makes all kinds of sense. I'll be happy to help you get the memories back, just as soon as you get well."

Cyborg chose that moment to stride into the room. He did a double take and trotted quickly to Raven's side. "Rae! You're awake! How do you feel?"

Jinx chuckled, earning her a glare from the supine girl. Victor glanced between them, puzzled.

The laughing pink eyes turned his way, and she waved off the nascent comment. "Ain't you, Stone, it's just that we _**just**_ went over that ground. She's in a lot of localized pain, but gratifyingly lucid."

Raven asked, "Since when … are you a … diagnostician?"

"Hey, just because it didn't come as original equipment, don't think you're the only empath around. I can get a pretty good idea of what's going on by holding your hand."

Raven stole a quick peek in that direction, reddened visibly, and slowly withdrew her hand from Jinx's.

Victor busied himself with checking Raven's vital signs, but Jinx could see the grin he couldn't quite hide. She vented a sigh and said, "Think I'll go see a bed about a nap."

"Nap? Pinky, you need a little more than a nap."

Raven frowned at that statement. "What's that mean?"

Victor faced her and said, "She didn't tell you?"

Jinx got a stormy expression on her pretty features. "Stone …"

"Tell me what?"

"She was up all night last night …"

"Stone!" Jinx grimaced, "Can it!"

"… makin' sure you didn't croak. Never left your side. I was startin' to think …"

A haze of pink static surrounded his head. His temporomandibular servo seized up, locking his mouth closed. Eyes wide, he said, through gritted teeth, "Wazh zat really neshesherry?"

She patted his right cheek. "Tisk-tisk. Just can't get decent repair parts anymore, can ya? Why don't you go take care of that little glitch you seem to have."

"Dammit, Zhinx! Zis'll take a good hour!"

"You ought to get started, then, yes?"

He stomped out of the room. Raven cleared her throat. "All night, huh?"

"… Stone has a big mouth."

"Heh. Not … right now."

That pulled a laugh from the pale girl. "Yeah, I guess."

"So … why all the … concern?"

Huffing in exasperation, Jinx turned to her and put her hands on her hips. "Are you really gonna make me say it?"

"I guess … that depends on … how much it needs … to be said."

Her face unreadable, Jinx let her arms drop and slowly walked back to the bed. "I need to know. How much do you remember?"

Not meeting Jinx's eyes, Raven didn't say anything for a few moments. "I remember … when you took me … to your … apartment."

Jinx felt the heat rise in her cheeks. "Anything else?"

"When you said … that thing about … not getting what you want."

The thief's face began to show a bit of interest. "Is that all?"

"Well … all the stuff … around those events. But it feels like there's … more."

"So, nothing about the Treece Museum episode?"

She thought that over a bit and gave her head a very slight shake. "Just what I could recall … from the surface. General impressions. Bits and pieces. Guess the details are … still in a box … somewhere."

"… Box?"

"In Nevermore."

That bought her a blank look. She sighed. "My mindscape. It's an actual place … that I can go to … sometimes … if I need to."

"… Whoa. Waitaminnit. Are you saying you can _crawl inside_ your own _head?"_

"In a manner of … speaking."

"That's either really cool or really creepy. Do you do it much?"

"Only when I need to." She yawned, winced, and asked, "Is there anything … to eat around here? I'm starving."

"Be right back."

####

Three more days passed before both Jinx and Victor pronounced Raven fit to leave the sickbay. She was arguably the worst patient in the western hemisphere the last two of those days.

Jinx spent most of her time hovering around the quickly-healing Titan, but the others snagged her for a few semi-lengthy sessions of catch-up. She acquainted them with a bit of what she'd been doing the past three years, heavily edited, told them about the sorcerer she'd been stalking, demonstrated the 3DBB for Nightwing and Starfire (who had fully recovered by the second day) and introduced them to Neron. Late the third day, while Raven slept – finally – Victor took Jinx back to her hotel so she could retrieve the rest of her effects and check out. Nightwing assigned her one of the empty rooms and told her in no uncertain terms that he didn't trust her yet. She gave him a thumbs-up and her signature Cheshire-cat grin, and allowed as how she wouldn't trust her either, being a thief and all. He wasn't reassured.

While the two girls were together there in the sickbay, they danced lightly around the topic of memory and what was going to be done, eventually, to correct Raven's perceived lack. That probably contributed a great deal to the empath's foul disposition. When she _did_ speak with Jinx, it was usually to complain, either about her forced inactivity or the pain associated with her injury or the prevalence of low-life gangs in Jump or the bland food they were making her eat, or especially her inability to meditate effectively. Jinx explained the blockage as a lingering effect of the disruptive magic in the Doombolt, and told her it would fade soon, but that didn't placate the Titan very much. She had a LOT of widely varying things weighing on her mind, and not being able to deal with it made her, as Jinx put it, testy. (The term Victor preferred was 'raving bitch', but he wisely kept that to himself.) That was the reason, so she said, that she flatly refused to talk about Neron and his schemes. She maintained that she already had a full mental plate and it wouldn't do anyone any good to pile more on if it was only destined to slide off again.

But toward evening of the third day in sickbay – which happened to be a Saturday – one of Raven's snit-fits resulted in half the electronics going on the fritz, and they all realized that she was well enough to move to her room. She experimented with a little levitation, found it no strain, and floated out of the medical wing, waving off the offered assistance.

Jinx walked with her to her room and stopped at the door. "You're gonna meditate now."

"Duh."

A grin quirked the corner of her mouth as Jinx responded, "Come find me when you have things sorted, 'k?"

"Count on it."

The thief had a sudden irrational urge to kiss Raven, and waffled, standing there shifting her weight from one foot to the other. But the empath picked up on the direction of her thoughts and quickly zipped into her room, locking the door behind her.

Jinx spoke up, "Locks? Really? Who do you think you're dealing with here?"

A few seconds later a black mist oozed out under the door and swiftly covered it, creating a monolithic surface free of openings. Jinx poked a finger at the nearly-rigid surface, blew it a raspberry, and stalked off.

####


	4. Chapter 4 Knowing

**ENEMY OF MY ENEMY**

_[Disclaimer: You've heard it all before. The sad but true facts of the case are that I don't own the Titans and DC does. Woe is me.]_

_**Chapter Four - Knowing**_

Damn, I hate it when I get all lazy and complacent. Skipped two whole days on this record-my-thoughts deal. Not that a hell of a lot happened, but it's the principle of the thing, ya know?

I gotta see if Stone will let me paint this room, once I get settled in. Gray and beige, ya might say, ain't my thing. That's assuming, of course, that I'm alive in a couple weeks. Jury's still out on that one.

Most of my junk is still packed up. Boxes, a few mismatched suitcases. Don't really have all that much. Guess constant travel will do that for a body. I keep all my important stuff in my special bag anyhow, and it's nowhere near full yet.

Raven is being totally distant. I haven't decided yet whether that's _better_ than terminally bitchy, or just _different_. It's certainly quieter. But if she isn't talking to me _at all_, there's no communication taking place, and that isn't gonna cut it.

Oh, yeah, one sorta-kinda-big thing did happen. I cast the Bones last night to see if I could get a bead on this Neron thing, and hit what might be a decent vein of ore, info-wise. If I didn't miss the reading by a time zone, I think his pet sorcerer is gonna try a summoning on the next new moon. That gives me a whopping eight days to get everything else together, convince Rae to help me, find Dorno, toss a monkey wrench in his plans, and (hopefully) kill him. If I – that is, if _we_ – can keep Neron from accessing this dimension directly, I'm gonna call it a win. Mainly 'cause, more than likely, I'll be alive. Otherwise, I'll have to use Mister Twister, and … well, maybe I won't have to. Never can tell, right?

I hope Rae might be up to lookin' into that memory problem today. It's funny. Not in a ha-ha way, but … some of the things she said … actually, more the way she said them … I think she might have what really happened totally ass-backwards. Here's hopin' we can get it all straightened out.

Oh, hey, Beast Bum got back last night. I really shouldn't call him that anymore, now that I think of it. He's lookin' pretty good these days. Guess you can't hang around Nightwing very long and not get trained up. He's taller'n I am now, too. Good bit taller. Boy hasn't missed too many meals. Anyway, after gettin' over the shock of me bein' here, he got right chummy. We had a few laughs over some of the battles we used to fight. Nightwing didn't seem too amused, though.

Speaking of Garfield (he hates it when I call him that, 'specially if I purr it) if I want some breakfast I better get on up to the kitchen. Later.

####

Raven hovered, motionless, above her bed. Her breathing was regular, slow, and deep. Every fifth breath she would murmur her mantra, just barely audible. This was how she had learned to come down from the experience every time she examined the recently-unearthed memories. It was _**most**_ necessary, and usually took at least an hour, more often two, before she considered her emotions sufficiently controlled.

She and Jinx had been … what? Not lovers, exactly; not physically at any rate – as far as she knew, which might not be all that far. Smitten, certainly. Close. In a durable relationship. This was an entire facet of her character that the thief had somehow managed to sweep under a psychic rug, and try as she might, Raven couldn't trace out any way that she could have done it. Jinx simply didn't have the gifts it took to pull it off, even now. She'd become a very formidable wielder of magic in the last three years, but she was a witch, not a sorceress, and the Craft, at its heart, was just **not** about mind-control. Raven had managed to glean quite a bit of information from the voluble girl over the last couple of days, by leading the conversation and then distracting her from the real question. The details only left her more confused.

Nor was that all. With the return of the memories came the feelings that sparked them to life. She had loved Jinx. Jinx had loved her. At this point she didn't know how Jinx felt, but Raven was having a lot of trouble keeping the pink-eyed feline out of her thoughts. She would find herself dwelling on the subtle curve of Jinx's lips, or the slender outline of her ear and the way it nestled against her candy-floss hair, or the slight, athletic flare of her hips that the form-fitting jeans emphasized so easily. The girl really was quite fetching, and that was a serious and growing problem.

It was a problem because Raven also despised Jinx for what she'd lost. How could she have done it? Not the technical end … no, what Raven could not understand was how Jinx could have had the temerity, the low-hanging-solid-steel _**balls**_ to think that she could do that to the empath and not face any sort of consequence. How could she have stolen something so precious from the one she _loved?_ It made no _sense!_

The dichotomy was driving Raven not-so-slowly mad. Grimly, she came around finally to the conclusion that she was going to have to lay her cards on the table with her pink-haired (well, currently-blond, but you get the idea) nemesis. And there was really only one truly effective way to do that. The trouble with the method involved was that it might pose a threat to Jinx's sanity. Not that Raven _cared_ whether she went off the deep end (she insisted to herself).

But the empath had to know. She had to know what else was missing, get it back, and place it in the proper context. She had to know how Jinx had accomplished the feat. But more than these, she felt that a lot of her turmoil could be cleared up if she only knew _**why**_. Why had Jinx done that to her? What had she done (or possibly, what had _they_ done) that was so horrible that it needed to be purged from memory? The question gnawed at her, frightened her, almost as much as the unreasoning resentment she felt over having been _**saved**_ by the odd girl. Again.

One of the abilities that Raven had cultivated in the last few years concerned distance control over her empathic field. On one end of the spectrum, she could now 'tune in' on anyone that fell within her line of sight, even across the bay. On the other, she could draw in her awareness until it was quite local, involving only her rooms and the corridor immediately without her door. That was her default state when she was cloistered, meditating. So she picked up on it instantly when someone showed up just outside.

####

Jinx grinned madly as she worked the controls. "Give it up, Gar-flop!"

"Why … should I?" Gar Logan grimaced, the rest of the world completely excluded as he piloted his virtual speed boat around yet another obstacle.

"You'll never catch me!"

"We'll see … about … that!" They came to a short straight stretch in the river, and both of the sleek watercraft gunned it. Gradually, Gar's dark green boat gained on the wildly-patterned pink thing that led the race. He grinned as they approached the next turn, a tricky ox-bow sort of thing that ate into an overhanging cliff face. A possible out had occurred to his agile mind. Just as they were about to enter the bend, he thumbed the sound knob suddenly up to the maximum volume. They had been playing the game with it down low because Nightwing was reading the paper in the kitchen. This altogether unexpected event startled Jinx, and she flinched badly. Her boat veered suddenly to the left, and it took every bit of skill she had to keep from wiping out on the rocks. Gar zoomed past her with a whoop.

"Turn that blasted thing down!" Nightwing roared.

"Sure!" answered his teammate, quickly muting the game while Jinx cursed and fought with the boat to get it back out into the watercourse. But as she was backing into the current, an eddy caught her and fetched her around sharply onto the limbs of a dead tree sticking out of the water. It fouled her propeller, and the motor stalled.

"Damn it!" She tossed the control aside and flopped back against the sofa.

"Hot dog! I win again!"

"Jerk."

"Hey, I didn't cheat."

"Jerk-_**wad**_."

"Sticks and stones …"

"Double jerkwad with a side of asshole."

"Hey, if you can't take a little distraction …" The controller he held suddenly shorted out, sparks popping out and singing one of his fingers. He dropped it with a yelp and turned an accusing glare Jinx's way.

"Um … oops?"

"You owe me another control."

"What? _You_ were holding it. I don't see how that makes it any of my …"

Nightwing's face interposed between the two. "Do. You. Mind?"

They both had the good grace to look sheepish, mumbling, "Sorry."

His mouth in a thin line, he glanced back and forth between them a time or two and then said, "I need to borrow your brain for a minute, Gar."

Jinx grinned. "You'll have to figure out who he loaned it to and go ask them."

Gar huffed, "Oh, you're a _riot_, you are." But he got up and followed Nightwing over to the monitors.

Leaning her head back onto the (nice, soft, cushy, way-better-than-anything-I-ever-had-before) sofa cushion, the pink eyes closed as Jinx took a deep breath and slowly let it out. She glanced at her watch and nodded. _Yeah, I guess I can have another whack at getting Emo Girl to talk to me._

Executing a flawless reverse kip off the cushion, she landed behind the sofa and fell immediately into a series of handsprings across the common room, putting an additional twist into the last one so that she touched down facing the door. She sauntered on through it, ignoring Nightwing's dark glare and Gar's slack-jawed admiration. The green shifter turned to the other hero and said, "Whoa."

The glare skewing around his way, Gar eased back just a hair under Nightwing's irritation. "Dude! What set you off?"

"I don't like it. It's a bit too pat to be plausible."

"… Too _**pat? **_Oh, really? Which part? The part where she saved Raven's life – and probably Star's – or the part where she gave you a legendary artifact so you could whoop some major gangbanger ass?"

The dark countenance paled slightly. Nightwing dropped his gaze. "You just got back. You weren't there."

"No, I wasn't. But Star and Vic gave me a mighty detailed play-by-play. That wasn't something Jinx could have set up. Why do you think she'd be involved?"

"Okay, your point. And I _don't _really think she was involved with the attack. I just think her timing, showing up here in Jump just when the whole city is about to devolve into gang war, is no coincidence."

Garfield Logan just shrugged. "I say we ought to take what we can get. There's an open spot with Terra gone east. God knows we can use the help."

"She hasn't offered to help _us_, Gar. She wants Raven to help _her_. That's probably the only reason she saved her."

"… the hell?"

Out in the hall, the subject of their conversation approached Raven's door, slowing somewhat as she got close. She assumed the empath would know she was there, so she didn't knock, simply waiting outside with an expectant cast to her mind.

####

Raven picked up on the approaching presence, and shifted her focus.

Jinx. Again.

_Very well._ This time Raven had some questions for her! The door slid silently open, nudged along by the softly glowing black nimbus. Jinx followed it with her eyes, sighed, and stepped in. She spotted the floating girl and said, "We need to talk."

"Oh, goddess, how clichéd can you get?"

"Pretty damn clichéd, from the looks of things." She used a hand to indicate the room. "Do you want me to enter the lair, or should we go somewhere else?"

"No, no, come on in." She patted the bed. "Have a seat."

Raven's tone and body language were at total odds. One of Jinx's eyebrows climbed a bit, but she walked over without hesitation and plopped down onto the duvet. "Looks like you've got a bee in your bonnet. That mean you don't wanna talk about Neron?"

"Perceptive. No, not just yet. I want to talk about you first."

"Me, huh? That don't sound good."

"_Doesn't_, Jinx, that _doesn't_ sound good. Please do me the favor of not massacring the language."

"You _do_ have a broomstick up your ass today, dontcha?"

With some effort, Raven reined in her urge to strangle the slim neck. "What I _have_, Miss Morrison, is …"

"The _**fuck?**_ How'd you find out my name?"

Raven stared at her, expression unreadable. "Practically any piece of information about an individual can be gleaned with enough research. You should know that, if your story about Velez-al'Aziz has any validity."

"I don't _**like**_ that name, Rae. There are several very compelling reasons for me never to use it again. If you went to all the trouble of digging it up, you can't _possibly_ be unaware of why I don't use it, so for you to call me … to even say … that's just … insulting. Jennifer Morrison doesn't exist."

"A manifest untruth, as Jennifer Morrison is sitting right here."

"Don't push it, Rae. Just because I can do this a hell of a lot easier with your help doesn't mean I won't try it solo if you decide to pull the Hellbitch routine on me."

"That's entirely up to you. Having you leave would simplify my life tremendously. If, however, this project is that important to you, you might just consider returning the favor, _**Jinx**_. And my name is Raven. Not Rae. And not any other cutesy, little, disgusting nickname you dream up either."

The thief pulled a long, ragged sigh and stood, wiping briefly at her eyes. "I beg your pardon. This was obviously a premature effort. I'm going back to my room now. If you feel like talking later, let me know. I'll try to be civil, if you'll try to keep the demon-spawn bullshit to a minimum. But I can't wait forever. In fact, I can't wait even a few days. So, if we don't start to work together by … let's say Friday. Yeah, that'll give you a couple days. If we can't work together on this thing by Friday, I'm outta here. And if I fuck it up, Neron'll come lookin' for you, and don't come cryin' to me when he does, because I'll be dead." And she spun on her heel and stalked to the door.

The portal, however, didn't open. She frowned, hit the touch-pad, hit it harder, noticed the black mist outlining it, and then turned back to Raven. "Well?"

"I … apologize for bringing up your background."

"Do you, now?"

"I do. That was … spiteful. And I should be above that." Her frown deepened. "Even if you did betray my trust and lie to me and cheat me out of a bunch of memories and …"

"Will _you_ just _fucking __**stop it?**_"

The vehemence of Jinx's outburst startled Raven, who promptly fell to the bed and bounced a little. She recovered quickly. "And why should I? This is **important**, Jinx. A personality is made of memories. If some of those are missing, a piece of the personality is gone." She tapped her head. "A piece of me is missing, as you know, and right now I don't have any idea how big that piece is, or what I don't know."

Jinx gave her a level – if somewhat shimmering – glare for several seconds; then she walked back over to the bed. Raven was sitting near the edge, and had drawn one leg up to her chest and wrapped her arms around it. She leaned back slightly when Jinx leaned toward her, cutting the distance between them to mere centimeters. Teeth gritted, her pupils narrowed to slits, Jinx stated, "You know, you're right. You _don't_ have all of your memories. You _don't_ have the whole story. Not by a damn sight I can tell. And I'd like to fix that. But you keep pushing me away and insulting me and not listening to _one fucking thing_ I say, and I Am **Tired **Of It." She moved a little closer, causing Raven to scoot backwards in alarm, but then Jinx sort of launched herself, knocking Raven over onto her back, and leaving the thief in a looming position over her, hands planted on either side of Raven's head.

"What the _hell_ do you think you're _doing?_"

"You're the demigod-class empath. You tell me."

The emotional storm Jinx gave off was already beating hard at her mind shield; couple that with the wildly shifting array of expressions that took turns molding her face, and it became pellucidly clear to Raven that the other girl was under immense strain from something. She was obviously holding back tears with some effort. The empath opened a tiny crack, just enough to taste what Jinx felt, but then slammed it back shut immediately, her face going bright crimson. A quick swallow was followed by her whispered plea, "Please move."

Jinx did, and sat down at the other end of the bed, curling into a tight ball and staring at the wall.

Raven slid off onto the floor and tripped into her bathroom, where she spent a minute splashing cold water on her face and then braced herself on the vanity, arms trembling.

_The selfless devotion. _

_The constant memories. _

_The searing lust. _

_The agony of separation. _

_The insurmountable obstacle of their separate lives. _

_The stark realization of her own mortality. _

_The bitter tang of unrequited love. _

_A pall of hopelessness covering everything._

Raven looked up at herself in the mirror, panting slightly. "Goddess … Jinx. … Shit." She ran some water into a glass and drank it, only spilling a little. Wiping a shaky forearm across her brow, she thought, _How do you bear it? How can you maintain such a happy-go-lucky demeanor with that … that maelstrom of contradictions living in your head?_

The glass went back to the counter. Sitting on the edge of the tub, she pulled a towel off the rack and patted her face dry, then draped it over her head like a cowl while repeating her mantra under her breath.

Her doorbell rang.

That brought a frown to her pretty features. Quickly she flew out into her room: no Jinx. She expanded her field, seeking the girl, but couldn't feel her close. That was Victor at her door, though, and he felt agitated. She slid it open for him.

He stepped in, stopping just past the threshold. "Rae? What the hell's up with Jinx?"

"… What do you mean?"

"I was on my way up from the garage, taking the stairs to do a survey of the lights, and she flew past me. Bumped me pretty good, but didn't even slow down. She was crying. Did you know she could fly?"

"Fly? Uh … crying? Really? Um …"

"What's goin' on?"

An excellent question, and one that Raven suddenly felt needed her full attention. "No, I didn't know she could fly. But I have a decent idea why she's crying, and I think I need to talk to her." So saying, she phased through the floor.

The temporary quarters were below the levels where the full members lived. Raven expanded her senses until she came across the distraught girl, her aura glowing in the empath's mind like a phosphor. She moved in that direction.

It wasn't her intention to sneak up on Jinx. She simply wanted to talk to her, to reassure her, to … to what? Help her feel better? Give her some hope? Was that … right? Or accurate? More to the point, was it even _possible? _Could she do that? Part of her wanted to _so badly_, but another part kept whispering that hurt and betrayal always lay down that path. There was so much that Raven didn't know about the situation, and in that respect Jinx had the advantage. But apparently having all the information didn't make _**her **_feel any better, either.

This was Raven's mental state when she phased into Jinx's room. The thief was crying bitterly, and halfway through the process of disrobing, it being her intention to take a shower. In any case, she stood before Raven, rubbing at her streaming eyes with the ball of one thumb, and clutching her shirt in her other hand. Her torso was completely bare.

Raven gasped. The fact that Jinx had been wearing long-sleeved shirts exclusively hadn't meant anything to her before. Some people just did that, even in summer, and Jinx's old uniform, if one could call it that, had long sleeves, too. Raven couldn't recall ever seeing her arms bare before (much less her chest), and she found herself becalmed at the sight. An elaborate black-and-red tattooed design of curlicues and arabesques extended from her right shoulder, down across her chest and the upper left part of her abdomen to disappear into her jeans just above her left hip. Similar marks covered the tops of both her forearms.

"Jinx?" Something in Raven's memory tickled at the complex design.

The pink eyes opened, grew large, and then angry as she focused on Raven. Jinx whipped the shirt back in front of her and screamed, "Get out!"

"Wha … that tattoo … Jinx, what is that?"

"Out! Get _**out!**_" Her voice climbed an octave.

"… but …"

"No! You ain't interested in the movie, so I'm _damned_ if you're gonna see the trailer." She pointed a resolute finger at the door. "Out!"

Blushing furiously, Raven did as she was told.

####

Several hours passed before Jinx reappeared. She'd changed her clothes, and was now togged up in a white sweat suit with light blue trim and a University of North Carolina logo on the chest. Her hair was put up in a tight French braid.

Raven had moved out to the common room, taking a book with her for pretense, but really just hoping that Jinx would come back so they could talk. Those waters were a very great deal deeper than she'd thought at first, and the questions only compounded as she waited.

However, when Jinx did show up, she didn't even acknowledge Raven's existence, her eyes sliding across the shorter girl as if she were so much furniture. She wandered over to the kitchen and started rummaging through the refrigerator.

Vic, who was channel-surfing, gave Raven a look and flicked his eye toward the kitchen. She sighed and then nodded, closing her book and laying it on the sofa before getting up and heading over that way. Jinx had arranged several ingredients on the counter and was putting together a sandwich for herself. Raven came up and leaned against the edge about two meters away. She cleared her throat. "If you'd like to talk about … um … whatever … I'm cool with it."

Jinx put the top piece of bread on, sliced it in half corner-to-corner, and took her plate over to the table, snubbing Raven dead on the way. She got a glass, pulled a bottle of orange juice out of the fridge, and sat down to eat. Raven watched her for a minute. When Jinx had finished the first half of the sandwich, the empath sat down across from her, keeping her voice low. "Jinx, I'm sorry I came in without knocking. I was … confused. I guess that's the best way to explain it. I wanted to …" She grasped for words.

Jinx took a sip of her juice and met Raven's eyes.

"I wanted to make it better. I'm … really sorry … for everything … and I …"

"Why?"

"… hm?"

"Why are you sorry?"

"Because I only made it worse. And you're right; I _don't_ have the whole story, so my … judgments are probably skewed. I messed up. And I'm asking your forgiveness."

A muffled snort escaping her lips, Jinx put her sandwich down. "_**My**_ forgiveness?"

Raven nodded.

"Why the sudden about-face? Thought I was the bad guy here."

"… I don't think so. If you ever were, you aren't now."

"Oh." Jinx dropped her eyes. "… What did you see?"

"Beg pardon?"

"You must have seen something … touched my mind. That's all I can think of for why you'd have this … change of heart. Am I wrong?"

Raven's blush was all the answer she needed.

"Fair enough, then. What'd you see?"

Raven stared at a spot on the wall behind Jinx's head. After a moment she whispered, "Pain. So much hurt. I've put you through … it just isn't fair."

"No. It isn't."

"And I didn't even know."

"I'll bet you a dinner at the finest steak joint in town that there's a hell of a lot _**more**_ you don't know besides that."

That brought an answering nod. "I realized that a while ago. But I think I've been making some … incorrect assumptions."

Jinx chuckled wryly. "Oh, you think?"

Raven reached a tentative hand across the table, laid trembling fingers on Jinx's arm. The contact firmed up their mental link and Raven winced under the power of the tempest. She raised her gaze to those fuchsia orbs. "I don't know how you can do it."

"Do what?"

"Seem so normal. Look so relaxed and happy. When there's all that going on underneath."

The girl just shrugged. "Ya do what ya gotta do. There's something I have to do. Dwelling on … what might have been … won't help."

"Jinx?"

She looked at Raven with a tiny, questioning smile.

"I'll help you."

That pulled her up straight. "With Neron?"

"Yes."

"You don't know what kind of help I need. You shouldn't agree to something before checking it out."

"Then we'll talk it over if you like. But I've already made up my mind about that. If Trigon has a nephew … well, I'd kind of feel responsible if there was a way to stop him and I didn't help."

"Huh … okay. That's good."

"And I'd like your help, too."

Jinx gave her that characteristic cocked eyebrow as a silent question.

"With my memories."

"Ah. Well, I certainly don't mind. But no joke, Raven, I really don't know how much good I'll be. It's kinda-sorta out of my field, this poking around in someone's head."

She thought, _Except when you did it to me_, but didn't say that. "Maybe you can be moral support."

The grin was back in force. "That, I can handle."

"Is there any more of that turkey breast?"

Jinx glanced at her sandwich. "Yep. Bottom drawer on the right."

A couple of minutes later Raven sat down with her own sandwich, and had a tea kettle heating up. "Would you care for some tea?"

"Whatcha got?"

"This one's lemongrass and dandelion root."

"Sounds good." She took her empty glass and plate to the sink, looking askance at the pile of dishes therein. "You guys need a maid."

"It's Gar's turn to clean."

"So? There's, like, three or four days' worth of dirty stuff here. He just got back last night."

"Um …"

"Tell ya what. I'll whip this batch into shape, and Gar can owe me."

"Really? Why the sudden interest in …"

"Oh, it's not sudden. You should see my apartment back in New York. Well, my old apartment. I let the lease lapse. But it was spickety-span."

"I'm sure Garfield will be glad of the help. But you'll need a hazmat suit to work with that pile."

"Shows what you know. I'll be right back."

The kettle started singing as Jinx left, so Raven prepared their cups. It was a matter of less than a minute before Jinx returned. She had a cloth bag and a small tripod.

"What's all that for?"

"Watch and learn, Grasshopper."

Raven's lips quirked in a half-smile. _We're talking! Hell, we're exchanging lively banter! _"My life's purpose is but to receive your wisdom, O Masterful One. Carry on."

Jinx got a tiny cauldron going under a can of Sterno and started a spell. Over the course of a couple of minutes, she added several things of dubious nature to the pot; her mutterings were sounding familiar.

"Are you using a form of animation magic?"

Being in the middle of an incantation, Jinx only nodded. After another minute the smoke coming off the top of the small pot turned to a light lavender. Raven giggled delightedly. Then the smoke, following Jinx's finger, eased over to the sink and sank into the mass of glop-encrusted plates and flatware. She finished up with a two-handed flourish and then pulled a chair over to sit in front of the counter. Raven joined her a few seconds later and handed her a teacup, watching avidly.

If the Tower's inhabitants couldn't keep up with their dirty dishes, it wasn't from lack of equipment. There were any number of scrubbing and scraping devices available, and all of them suddenly perked up and went to work. The water turned on, and a stainless-steel-wool pad got busy on the topmost plate.

"You _totally _have to teach me that spell!"

"It's mostly Glamour. Think you can handle it?"

"pppbbbbb!"

Jinx sobered suddenly, giving her companion a sideways glance. Raven caught it and looked at her. "What?"

Jinx bit her lower lip as careful fingers brushed slowly through Raven's hair, catching it behind her left ear. The dark girl shivered at the touch, but didn't move. A thousand clues were screaming to her to be extra-gentle with the thief at this juncture, so she merely held Jinx's gaze.

"I don't want to fight."

"Neither do I," Raven admitted.

"I missed you." The words were barely audible.

"… I … picked up on that."

"But you didn't miss me." It was stated only as a fact, with no overt emotional weight.

"Well … no. Memories, you know?" She averted her eyes and took a quick swallow of tea. _But with what I've gotten back so far, __missing__ her is the __least__ of my problems!_

"Yeah, I know." She gestured at the vigorously-washing tools and said, "They'll keep at it until everything is clean. We don't have to watch. Would you like to take a stroll down memory lane?"

"I believe I would. Can I add this plate to the pile?"

"Sadly, no. It only works on what was there already. It needs limits, otherwise …"

"You'd find yourself in a Sorcerer's Apprentice-type situation. Right?"

"Right you are." She held out a hand, indicating the door to the hall. "After you."

####

"So you've been in there twice, now?"

"Yes. And I can't help but think that there's more to that cave. But the memories I got back … it was a lot to process. I haven't been back because I was working through my, uh," She fought down the blush that threatened to invade her cheeks. "… the, uh, _reaction_ to what I learned. Then I got wounded, and nearly died. Then when I woke up, here you are, in the Tower, _**not**_ being a villain, and I learned that you saved my life, and … well … it was a lot to process."

Jinx giggled. "You've been a busy girl."

"Too right."

The two of them sat facing each other on Raven's bed, the silver-framed mirror between them, in its cover. Jinx quite readily agreed to accompany Raven on this mental excursion, which convinced the empath that her companion had no idea what was in store. She tried to explain, but Jinx waved it off. "Can't be any worse than what Brother Blood put us through."

"I wouldn't count on it. That, from what I've heard, was bad, but it was primarily just brainwashing. Nothing physical."

"There were physical components. Trust me. Unpleasant ones."

"Heh. 'Unpleasant'. How … understated."

"You know me. I'm the poster girl for Subtle."

Raven laughed hard at that, and the bed scooted several centimeters away from the wall before she got her powers back under control. "Goddess, Jinx, don't make me laugh like that! It's dangerous."

"So I noticed." She tapped the object between them. "I'm ready when you are."

Raven pulled the mirror from its cover; the face was down against the bed. Then she took Jinx's hand, doing her level best to ignore the sudden thrill it gave her. "All you have to do is look into it, okay?"

"Sure. No prob."

"Let's hope." She took a deep breath and flipped the mirror over.

####

Jinx landed rather harder than she would have liked, and nearly fell. Cursing softly, she steadied herself and then looked around. Raven was nowhere to be seen. For that matter, hardly anything else was, either. The phrase 'blighted land', she mused, must have been invented to describe this place.

For one thing, it wasn't level, undulating off into the distance in quease-inducing rolls and dips. The ground was rock. Not just rocky, but apparently solid rock, which was liberally strewn with sharp fragments. Everything was dark. Not too dark to see, but then, with her eyes that would have to be _awfully_ dark. A bitter wind blew around in a desultory manner, catching up grit here and there and peppering her with it.

"Son of a bitch. Goth, much?"

Raven had mentioned that they might come in separated, and that she should look for a portal. Jinx wished she'd gotten a little better description of said portal. Nothing she saw looked like a doorway.

Then she noticed the arch. It, too, was made of rock, rough and windblown, like some ancient natural bridge. There was nothing else around that offered any better clue, so she trudged off toward it … and arrived in just a few steps, surprising her again.

"Ooookay. That's weird." She stepped through the arch, and found herself staring up at a high wall. "And since that wasn't weird enough …" The wall stretched off into the distance in both directions, but she saw what looked like a gap off to her right. That proved to be an opening into …

"Oh, the maze! Right. She said Timid stayed in a maze. I guess I have to find her now." Tripping on into the labyrinth, she giggled. "Puzzles are fun, and this one has a prize at the end."

Nor did it take her very long to get to the middle. She suspected that the gray-cloaked Emotion _allowed_ herself to be found, because she wasn't cringing in fear, but rather was sitting on a shelf of rock, arms around her knees, and staring at Jinx as she came around a corner.

"Oh! Hello."

Timid gave her a brief wave. "You're Jinx."

"All day long. And you must be Timid. Very pleased to meet ya."

"Raven said you weren't dangerous, and I shouldn't be scared."

"She's right. I'm just here to help her find a memory. Or maybe more than one."

Timid looked off to the left. "Memories … can be pretty scary, too."

"Life's like that I hear."

"Yeah. Too often."

"Do you get out much? Talk with the other Emotions?"

"Uh … no. Not often. Most of them are …" She swallowed, caught her breath, and continued, "… kind of … intense. Especially Brave. And the new girl. But Wisdom comes here and talks to me some."

_New girl?_ Jinx cleared her throat. "So, I'm supposed to meet Raven in here somewhere. Is there a shortcut to that common area she told me about? I think I came in on the backside of nowhere."

Almost eagerly, Timid pointed to the left. "Down that passage, take the second left, second right, second left, then press on the wall at the end."

Jinx could tell when she was being dismissed. She stood. "Thanks. I'll give Raven your regards."

Her voice tiny, Timid said, "Thank you." And Jinx walked off.

The indicated route led her into a small, grassy glade with enormous trees on all sides. She couldn't see ten meters into the gloom under them. Before she had a chance to spend too much time puzzling over this place, she heard a step behind her and spun around, dropping to a crouch out of instinct. This new Raven wore an emerald-green cloak and had both fists clenched. She growled, "Just try something. Give me an excuse."

Jinx slowly stood straight. "Brave?"

"Who else? And you're Jinx, and you're bad news."

"Bad _**luck**_. There's a difference."

"Says you."

Jinx glanced around again, but got no inspiration. "So … I thought I was supposed to be headed for the common area. But this is your place, isn't it?"

Brave stalked up and got in her face. "What are you _really_ doing here?"

"Helping a friend. At least, I hope she's a friend. Hope I can _keep_ her as a friend." This last was muttered under her breath.

"I don't trust you."

"You sound just like the Boy Blunder when you say that."

Brave growled and took a swing at her, but Raven's hand-to-hand training was not _**even**_ in the same class as Jinx's. The thief easily avoided the punch, and the series of kicks that followed. They played tag around the glade, until Brave was panting hard. "Stand still, damn it!"

"I don't think so. I have no reason to hit you and even less to allow you to hit me."

Brave launched another, equally fruitless attack. After several minutes, she leaned back against a tree to try to catch her breath. Jinx sat on a large rock, not too far away, and asked, "All finished?"

"Screw you."

"Sounds like fun, but I don't really have the time. And you'd probably need a bath first. I'm not into sweat sex."

"Just … shut up!"

"If you'll point out the way to the common area, I'll be happy to get out of your hair."

Brave grimaced. "You'll have to … beat it … out of me!"

"I'd really rather not. Even though Raven did say that you couldn't actually be harmed, I don't think she'd appreciate it if I roughed up her sense of purpose." She grinned. "Besides, the longer you hold out, the longer you have to put up with charming little me. That can't be much fun for someone like you. Why don't you foist me off onto Happy?"

Brave stared at her, chest heaving, for several seconds, then jerked her head to the side and strode off. Jinx scrambled up to follow. In just a few dozen steps they came to a rocky cliff face covered with hanging vines. Brave pointed and said, "Step through there." Then she melted back into the trees.

Smirking in satisfaction, Jinx swept aside the vines and entered the cave …

… and nearly tripped over one of the great rocks littering the ground.

_This can't __**possibly**__ be Happy's place! _The cave, with its cool walls and inviting dampness, was gone. The earth here was black, the sky the color of molten iron, the wind hot and bitter. Before her stood a brooding castle of dark slate. A massive gate of what looked like obsidian blocked her path, heat pouring off it like the doors of Hell's furnace.

"I sure as _shit_ ain't goin' in there!" She looked all around. Death Valley was an amusement park compared with this place. In the distance she thought she could make out things moving … things that looked a lot like big rocks. A couple of them seemed to be headed this way, making her nervous. Quickly deciding to exercise the better part of valor, she jumped back through the arch …

And nearly knocked Raven down. But the empath caught her balance and stared incredulously at her guest. "Jinx? I've been looking all over for …"

The sudden surge of relief that washed over her made her grab the shorter girl and hold on hard. "Thank God! It's you. Damn, Raven, your Emotions are hard to deal with!"

"Heh. Don't I know it. Where were you?"

"Well, first I ran into Timid, and then …"

"Could you … ease up a bit? Hard to breathe."

"Oh! Sorry!" She broke the death grip and stepped back. "I was just … really glad it was you."

That won Jinx a tiny smile. "Well, good."

"Okay. So, Timid told me to go … ah, she gave me directions to the common area, but instead I ended up in Brave's place, and she tried to beat me up, but …"

"What? She _fought_ you?"

"Eh. Dunno as I'd call it a fight. There was no contact. Wasn't for lack of trying on her part, though."

"That's … odd. Do you know what set her off?"

"Being me, best I could tell. She showed up with a chip on her shoulder."

"Weird."

"If you say so. Anyhow, I asked her where the common area was, and she wouldn't tell me, so then I said she could shuffle me off on Happy, and she told me to go through this cave, but when I came …"

"Cave? Oh, hell!"

"Yeah, hell's kinda what it looked like."

Raven took her hand. "Jinx, I am _sorry!_ Brave should have known better!"

"So she _meant_ for me to go there? What _was_ that place?"

"That's where Rage stays. She's in that castle these days instead of the cage I used to have for her."

"You kept her in a cage? No wonder she's mad."

"It's not that simple," answered Raven, shaking her head. "Rage is intimately connected to my demonic side. Even with Trigon gone, I can't afford to give her any leeway. It would be too, too dangerous."

"… Oh."

Pulling her along, Raven said, "But you made it here anyway. Come on, let's meet up with Knowledge. I want to take another look at that cave."

They slipped under another arch and came out in neutral territory. A yellow-cloaked figure stood there, tapping her foot. "It's about time!"

"Sorry, Wisdom, Brave was being an ass."

"An accomplishment at which she excels." She gave Jinx a quick once-over and nodded. "I suppose you'll do."

"Huh. 'preciate the vote of confidence."

They zipped across the wasteland with startling speed, soon arriving at the cave in question where Knowledge, in a brown cloak, was already waiting on them. Raven glanced over at Jinx. "Look familiar?"

"No. Should it?"

"That's where my memories were buried."

"Ah. Okay. But you know I've never been here before."

"Right. Not in person, like this."

"Not ever, in any fashion."

Raven's mouth worked open a couple of times, but then she frowned, shrugged, and turned to the doorway.

Knowledge said, "It's still burning."

That pulled Raven's head around. "The candle?"

"Yes."

Wisdom nodded. "So this is of a type with the other."

"It would seem so," her sister Aspect agreed.

Moving eagerly into the cave, Raven scooted to the rear of the chamber and ducked into the smaller one. Then she frowned. Calling back outside, she asked, "Knowledge, did you put it in a sconce?"

"I did not. Nevertheless, it now sits in one, where before it was sitting on the floor."

Wisdom said, "That is quite significant. Raven, can you see anything unusual about the wall around the sconce?"

Jinx got the Aspect's attention and asked, "Okay if I go in there, too?"

"Do you think you should?"

"I dunno. But I'm curious."

"And you have been likened to a feline on more than one occasion."

"What harm could it do?"

Wisdom thought it over and gave a tiny shrug. "None, I suppose." She raised her voice slightly. "Raven?"

"Yeah?"

"Jinx would like to come in there with you."

"Well, it's kind of tight, but I guess that would be okay."

Jinx scooted inside. "Hey. You're right. The Taj Mahal, this ain't." She poked a head into the inner chamber. "Huh. How 'bout that."

"Have a look at this. See if you can make anything of it."

"Looks like a candle in a wall sconce."

Raven gave her a look, then noticed the grin, whereupon she popped Jinx's arm. "Don't be a smart ass. I'm trying to get to the bottom of things here."

"Okey-doke." Easing in beside the empath, they had to rub shoulders to fit. "Damn good thing I ain't claustrophobic."

They studied the candle and its holder. Whereas the first candle had been a narrow taper, this one was squat and wide, nearly a regular cylinder. Jinx offered, "Weird lookin' sconce."

"Yes, and I know that has to mean something. The other candleholder was what led me to this chamber, so this one must be trying to do something similar."

The sconce had a fairly standard base for the candle to sit on, and that was attached to a vertical bracket in the shape of an arrowhead pointing up. There were five small scroll-like strips of metal that curved down from the bottom of the base like a stylized flower. One of them, the one in the center, was longer, and extended up to slightly above the base level. It came to a sharp point.

Raven ran a finger along it lightly. "There's that arrow motif again. I know it's pointing at something!"

"Yeah, the roof."

They both peered upward, but the rocky dome held no clues.

Knowledge called in, "It occurs to me that the fact of its being a _sconce_ may be significant."

"How so?" Raven asked.

"The word has multiple meanings."

Jinx and Raven glanced at each other. "Like what?"

"One archaic definition is roughly 'wits' or 'common sense'. It can also refer to a small, defensive earthwork."

Chuckling, Jinx observed, "Well, we're in one of those already."

"Indeed, so I imagine that if there _**is**_ a double-meaning intended, it would refer to how you use your head."

"Meaning," opined Raven, "how we solve the riddle."

"Correct."

Jinx stared at the sconce for several seconds, studying the thing's construction. "That point …"

"Yes?"

"Hey, looky. It's pointing up, right?"

"Right. So?"

"It's got a candle behind it." She craned her neck around to look at the opposite wall. "Damn. We're in the way." And she shuffled back out of the tiny room. "Come on."

"Come on where?"

"Just out here. You'll see. I hope."

When they were again side by side, only on the other side of the opening, Jinx grinned and pointed. "See?"

There on the floor, the shadow of the pointed strip of metal lay, stretching exactly to the base of the wall. Eagerly, Raven crawled back in, crouching low to study the spot. "Ah ha!"

"What is it?"

"Hang on." She brushed away some dust, and Jinx caught a faint glimmer. "There's a … yes, it's a ring."

"A ring?"

"Couple centimeters across, I'd say. Looks brass. Too light to be gold."

"Ha! Funny. Go for the brass ring."

Raven gave her a pleased grin. "Exactly!"

"Okay, so, pull it."

"Give me a moment … got to uncover … okay, I think I can get a finger in there …" And she did, pulling upward. The ring came free grudgingly, and trailed a short chain from its lower side. Her excitement mounting, Raven pulled it out of the dirt, stopping when it would tug no farther. She immediately began scrabbling at the floor around where the chain disappeared. Jinx said, "Wouldn't it be quicker to use your power to scoop the dirt back?"

Raven sat up, gave Jinx a pained look, and crossed her arms. A black mist covered the spot on the floor where she'd been working, and in a trice a small trap door came to light. "Thanks. Got a little monomaniacal there."

"You're welcome." She looked at the door in confusion. "Are we supposed to go through that? Because I haven't been that narrow in quite a few years."

"I don't know. Let's open it and see." She pulled on the chain, and the door creaked open. The small space revealed was just a bit larger than the wrapped box that sat within.

"What's that?"

"That, my dear, is my memory." Carefully, Raven reached in with her power and pulled out the box. Then she floated outside, Jinx following. "This is what the others looked like."

"So … your memory is a … present?"

"A gift, yes. Odd, isn't it?"

"So you open it and a memory pops out? How's that work?"

"Let's find out." She touched the bow …

**My Patrol is very quiet tonight.  
****I float along,  
****some twenty or thirty meters above the rooftops.  
****I spy into the alleys.  
****I let my senses roam into the buildings below.  
****Few are left, here in the business sector.  
****It is very late,  
****and most workers have gone home.  
****I would like to go home.  
****But I cannot.****This is my place,  
****my time,  
****my vocation.  
****I know that, soon, something will happen.  
****Something always  
****happens,  
****usually within a few minutes past midnight.  
****I need to be here to stop it,  
****to foil a robbery  
****or  
****to protect the innocent  
****from harm.  
****As I do so often when that thought crosses my mind,  
****I laugh at my own temerity.  
****Someone like me,  
****demon-spawn,  
****protecting the innocent.  
****Humorous, no?  
****Then, as they always do, my thoughts  
****run  
****to  
****darker  
****veins.  
****Is anyone truly innocent?  
****Is anyone truly good?  
****I have debated this with myself so often.  
****Many of the major  
****religions  
****of this world would answer a resounding  
****NO!  
****There is no one  
****innocent,  
****no one  
****good.  
****On the other hand  
****there are those who would say that even the **_**concepts**_** of  
****good and evil  
****are nothing but rhetorical  
****traps.  
****I have spoken at length with priests of many stripes.  
****One tried to exorcise me.  
****He was amusing, in his way.  
****Most wanted me to follow their precepts,  
****to study their  
****holy words.  
****But they maintained, almost without exception, that all other religions are false.  
****There were a few,  
****the simple,  
****the ones who acknowledge the spirit world  
****but have no Revealed Word of their own,  
****who seemed to accept me for who I am.  
****But they are  
****rare.  
****So rare.  
****And no one,  
****not a single one of the clerical men or women I spoke with,  
****truly understood who  
****I am  
****and what I have had to deal with all my life.  
****It isn't, I think, because they refuse to.  
****It is because they are unable to.  
****There are no points of reference.  
****I wonder sometimes if understanding could ever be possible.  
****Would it be worth my time to try?  
****I don't know what kind of lifespan I will have.  
****My mother was a mortal.  
****My father was not.  
****If I had not destroyed him, he might have lived forever.  
****I think that may have been part of his problem.  
****He couldn't achieve closure.  
****He had no 'end time' to anticipate.  
****He had only eternity.  
****That had to be just a little bit frightening.  
****Eternity can be very, very lonely.  
****I hope I do not live forever.  
****I do not want to outlive everyone I have come to  
****love,  
****even those, like  
****Jinx,  
****who have  
abandoned  
****me.  
****I quickly pull my thoughts away from that path.  
****Living.  
****Loving.  
****Living forever.  
****I don't want that.  
****And yet … I fear death.  
****I have fought madly to avoid the Reaper.  
****Does this mean I am insane?  
****Again, and yet again, it is the Tricky Definitions that derail my thoughts.  
****The debate keeps me occupied  
****until something happens  
****that pulls me back into the realm of the  
****pragmatic.  
****Whether one is good or evil is so often moot.  
****The real question is whether one is interested in  
****justice.  
****Do I obey the law?  
****One of Earth's noted  
****philosophers  
****said that an unjust law is no law at all.  
****Is the law itself applied rationally and justly  
****so that one of  
****common sense  
****could follow it gladly?  
****Many in this land would laugh at such a question.  
****Many say that law and politics are merely  
****games  
****played by the powerful,  
****that the average citizen is no more than a puppet,  
****if lucky,  
****and a victim too often.  
****But that is not for me to say.  
****I am a stranger in this world.  
****And though I once rescued it from oblivion, it heeds me not.  
****I am alone with my thoughts.**

******* * ***  
**I pass over the fringes of the financial district.  
****Jump City has so many banks, ****such a high concentration of currency,  
****that many thieves find it too much temptation to resist.  
****This is an affluent city, for all its crime-ridden slums.  
****Jewelry  
****and safety deposit boxes  
****and high-end electronics  
****and super-cars  
****and dozens of neighborhoods  
****populated by millionaires  
****all throw a bright flare that beckons to those  
****whose talents lie in separating  
****The Rich  
****from their possessions.  
****It is nearly one-o'clock now.  
****The Treece Museum comes into view.  
****It is a museum of natural history,  
****a repository of anthropological knowledge.  
****Unlike many museums,  
****the Treece doesn't put fancy,  
****expensive,  
****valuable trinkets on display.  
****The curators here are much more interested  
****in the lives and times of the peoples  
****who came before.  
****Their displays reflect that.  
****You will find dioramas of village life from half a hundred early civilizations,  
****explanations of hunting methods and tools,  
****examples of early languages,  
****and clothing,  
****and transportation,  
****and husbandry.  
****This place draws hardcore anthropologists.  
****It isn't a museum that offers much of an attraction for thieves.  
****I don't normally give it much more than a cursory glance,  
****and this night is no different.  
****However …  
****A light flashes briefly through one window.  
****I wonder if it is a trick of reflection.  
****I stop, and wait, and watch.  
****It comes again.  
****The museum has been closed for six hours.  
****I know they don't employ roaming guards.  
****There is no point.  
****What would a thief steal?  
****Nevertheless, someone is in there.  
****Sighing, I swoop down.**

*** * *  
****Phasing through the wall, I float along  
****silently.  
****I come in to an adjacent hall.  
****Caution is my watchword, stealth my staunch ally.  
****The thieves in this city are frequently well armed,  
****and I've no desire to engender the expense of  
****thousands of dollars  
****in collateral bullet holes.  
****I can hear a very slight scrape as I reach the cross-corridor.  
****I turn left.  
****I can see,  
****down maybe twenty-five meters,  
****a figure all in  
****black  
****working on a display case.  
****I wonder why the proximity alarms haven't sounded.  
****If one had, I'd have been notified by now.  
****That spoke of a high level of skill for this burglar.  
****I move into a convenient shadow  
****and emerge from another behind the thief.  
****The figure is small, and slight,  
****good qualities for one in that profession.  
****I look to see what would tempt such a master to break in here …  
****and I am very confused.  
****The objects in the case are ancient projectile weapons:  
****a spear and a throwing stick.  
****The plaque says the spear was  
****sacred  
****to an aboriginal people in southern Africa  
****some three millennia ago.  
****There is also a small leather shield,  
****but it is a modern reproduction,  
****not an original.  
****Why on earth would anyone be stealing these things?  
****But that, in the final analysis, doesn't matter.  
****Thievery is being done, and must be stopped.  
****I reach out and wrap the thief in layers of soul-self,  
****cold and black,  
****and in doing so I touch the perp's mind …  
****It is Jinx.  
****She has a moment of panic when she realizes she has been discovered.  
****Her hands fill with balls of pink fire.  
****But just as soon as she understands that she is caught,  
****she realizes  
****who it is  
****who has caught her,  
****and the flames wink out.  
****I turn her to face me, and set her back on the floor, and  
****release her.  
****My heart has never beaten this hard, nor ached this much.  
****I look into those bright pink eyes and I see  
****hurt  
****and fear  
****and sadness  
****and longing  
****and …  
**

**"You said you were going to leave.  
You told me … you were going far away."  
**

**"Yeah, I said that, didn't I?"  
**

**"But you didn't do that."  
**

**"Actually … I did."  
**

**I am confused.  
"Why did you come back?"  
**

**She raised a faltering hand, indicated the display case.  
"Commission job."  
**

**I float over and land in front of her.  
She is beginning to cry.  
The appeal of that outlet occurs to me as well.  
"How can you do this to me?"  
**

**"I didn't want to."  
**

**"_Want_ doesn't matter. What you are _doing_ matters."  
**

**Her tears come faster now.  
She sits down on the edge of the dais  
and drops her head  
into her hands.  
"He contacted me.  
Told me he'd heard of my abilities.  
Said that, because it was in Jump and  
the Titans  
might get involved, I was the one for the job.  
Offered me … a hell of a lot of money  
to come get these things."  
**

**"And you couldn't say no?"  
**

**"I guess …"  
She sniffs and pulls a hand across her face.  
Tears are running down her arms now,  
and her stuttering breaths make her  
hard  
to understand.  
"… guess … I'm not as … strong … as I thought I was."  
She looks up at me, and my heart nearly stops.  
She is stricken.  
Absolutely and finally  
defeated,  
and she whispers,  
"I thought …"  
**

**When she pauses, I prompt her. "Thought what?"  
**

**"Thought if …  
… was in town …  
… might … I … maybe get …  
… to see you. I couldn't …"  
Her sobs take over. She can't speak.  
**

**I sit beside her. I put my arm over her shoulders.  
**

**She flinches at my contact.  
Her face comes up, centimeters from mine.  
"If you touch me …  
… if you hold me …  
… I will never … able … to leave again.  
I can't do … to you.  
Didn't _want_ … do _this_ to you."  
Her words are broken, much like her spirit.  
**

**I gently wipe the tears from her flaming cheeks.  
Through the contact I can feel her shame.  
She is ashamed of  
what she is,  
ashamed of why we can't be together,  
ashamed of her lack of will power.  
Through all that weaves her love.  
She loves me.  
There is no doubt.  
And because of that, she wants to save me from herself.  
She would save me from the torture of making an impossible decision.  
But all I can think of,  
all that captures my  
thoughts,  
is that she is back.  
She is here.  
She is close.  
And now …  
Now …  
I can keep her.  
I can make her stay.  
It will be so easy.  
Slide, ever so softly, into her mind.  
Plant the seed.  
Water it well.  
Help it grow.  
Stay.  
Only stay.  
I will make it all better if you only stay.  
**

**Her eyes glaze over a bit.  
"I can … stay."  
**

**"Yes," I say, smoothly.  
"You will stay with me."  
I place my hands on either side of her face.  
"Stay …"  
**

**She leans toward me.  
Her eyes drop shut.  
**

**My skin burns with the need for those moist lips.  
"Yes."  
**

**She whimpers against my mouth,  
"… love you."  
**

**"I love you, too."  
**

**Something startles her.  
She blinks a few times, and pulls back.  
"What are you … doing?"  
**

**I pause, and consider, and realize that Lust is in the driver's seat.  
My hands leap from her face.  
Ferociously, I  
push  
my wayward Emotion  
down,  
slam the door to her  
rooms.  
I stand and quickly move away.  
"****I'm sorry!"  
**

"**But … what were you … doing?"**

**And I think to myself, _Being selfish!  
_But I don't say anything.**

**Jinx gets up and comes to stand behind me.**  
**"This is never going to work, you know."**

**I want to say that she is wrong.**  
**I want to say that love will overcome.**  
**But basic nature doesn't change, at least not overnight.**  
**I turn to her.**  
**"I'm really, really sorry for that."**

**"Did you … try to … influence me?"**

**I hang my head and turn away from her.**  
**"Please don't feel like _you're_ the only one with no will power."**

**"It's like I said. I have to go. I'll ruin your life if I stay."**

**"You'll ruin it if you leave."**  
**I look over my shoulder, catch her gaze.**  
**"Maybe we could both go away. Far away."**

**"And you become a thief? That ain't gonna happen. Not on my watch."**

**"If you're so shocked by me just thinking about it, how come you don't …"**

**"This is who I am.**  
**I'm not proud of it.**  
**But I have a skill set that isn't really conducive to much else.**  
**I am a thief.**  
**I'm not a girl who happens to steal things.**  
**Being a thief is what I _am_.**  
**Just like being a _hero_ is what _you_ are.**  
**It isn't something you just decide.**  
**Like, 'oh, hey, today**  
**just for a lark**  
**I think**  
**I'll go put a major dent in the criminal element of Jump City!'**  
**That's not a _decision_ for you.**  
**It's who you are.**  
**And this is who I am."**  
**She drops her head, crosses her arms, and turns away.**

**I ask, "Don't I get any say-so in this process?"**

**"No. Not for either of us."**  
**She folds her legs and flops to the floor.**

**"That stinks."**

**"You're right. It is seriously fucked up. But that's how things are."**  
**She looks up at me.**  
**"I didn't make the rules,**  
**but no matter how much I hate it,**  
**I can't do anything about it.**  
**That would be like arguing with gravity while falling."**  
**She laughs bitterly.**  
**"Sorry. Bad allusion. Doesn't apply to you."**

**"I'm not going to arrest you."**

**"Thanks. I'm not going to steal that stupid spear."**

**"Oh."**  
**I am unaccountably pleased by that.**  
**"Why did … your client want it?"**

**"Who knows? But for what he was paying, I didn't care.**  
**It was enough to … get me started.**  
**To start over … somewhere."**

**"Somewhere without me, you mean."**

**She nodded.**

**"What if I just come find you?"**

**"I wish you wouldn't."**

**"Why not?"**

**"Have you even been _listening_ to this conversation?"**

**"Maybe I don't _like_ this conversation!**  
**Maybe I want to see what a _normal_ life feels like!**  
**You know?**  
**Regular people with a cute house in the 'burbs and 9-to-5 jobs?**  
**Why can't we have that?"**

**"Oh, like you could ever even _try_ to live that way."**

**"We'll never know if we _don't_ try."**

**She regards me soberly for several moments.  
"I already know.  
That just ain't us."  
Wandering over to a window, she  
stands  
gazing out of it.  
"This time … when I leave …"**

**"Don't leave."**

**Her head drops.  
"… when I _leave_ I'll have to make sure to stay away."**

**"I'm not letting you leave!"**

**"You don't really have anything to say about it."**

**"This is so unfair!"**

**She stands in one-quarter profile from my perspective.  
I can tell from the way her cheek moves that she is grinning.  
I can also tell there is not even a  
miniscule  
trace  
of humor in it.  
"We had this same talk last time.  
But tonight … showed me what a real coward I am.  
I won't be coming back to Jump.  
Not any time soon."**

**Arms of darkness encircle her, draw her to me.  
There is fear,  
and pain,  
and stubborn resolve,  
and the ache of loss  
in  
her  
beautiful  
eyes.  
Her voice is so soft.  
"You need to let it go, Raven."**

**"I won't!"**

**"You sound like a spoiled three-year-old."**

**"I don't care!"**

**"Rae, listen to yourself!  
This is crazy!  
Me? Jinx?  
_Me_, being the _mature_ one?  
What the hell is up with that?"**

**"Why don't we deserve the same chance at happiness that normal people get?"**

**"Rae … we _aren't_ normal."**

**I stand there silently,**  
**holding her in my power as I feel**  
**my life**  
**squeezing from my fist**  
**like so much quicksilver.**  
**My lungs can't seem to draw enough air.**

**She snakes an arm loose from my coils and touches my face.**  
**"If I get a head wound and lose half my brain …**  
**… if I get Alzheimers …**  
**… no matter what …**  
**I will never, never forget you.**  
**But I can't stay here.**  
**Not now."**

**There is more going on in her head.**  
**I can feel the restless currents.**  
**She wants to say more, but doesn't.**  
**"What is it that you want to tell me?"**

**She laughs quietly.**  
**"Let me go."**

**"Promise you won't run away."**

**"No promises.**  
**You can't trust the word of a thief anyway."**

**"Then I'm not letting you go."**

**"I will not be responsible for knocking your life off the tracks."**

**"My decisions are not your doing or your concern."**

**"Like hell."**  
**She squirms a bit.**  
**"At least lighten up some. I can't breathe in here."**

**It strikes me that this may have been the issue all along.  
****"You …  
you don't want to be in a relationship _at all_, do you?  
Not with _anyone_."**

**"What? Don't be stupid."**

**"Then tell me it isn't so.  
Tell me that if things were different …"**

**"In a heartbeat."**

**"… What?"**

**"If I _knew_ for sure I could give up being a  
thief,  
we'd already be picking out curtains."**

**I only stare at her.**

**"But the sad fact of the matter is just as I told you before.  
I'm a thief.  
I. Am. A. Thief.  
I don't know how to be anything else.  
Maybe, someday, I can get there.  
Maybe I can un-learn thieving.  
Please believe that I'll try.  
But I'm not there yet.  
I have no guarantees.  
And I'll not let my personal shortcomings  
drag  
you  
down  
with  
me."**

**Inadvertently I tighten my grip.  
She hisses in sudden discomfort, and I,  
chagrined,  
ease up quite a bit.**

**That's when she blasts me.  
The hex-bolts rip her loose from my power.  
The explosive shock knocks me back,  
makes me lose my  
concentration,  
and the soul-self  
falls  
to  
tatters.**

**I hear a crash.  
When I sit up, she is gone, and the nearest window is blasted to shards.  
There are drops of her blood on many of them.**

*** * *  
****I spend the rest of that night  
****and most of the following day  
****searching for  
****her.  
****I am wild with grief and pain and an undeniable sense of betrayal.  
****I am not certain what I will do if I find her:  
****cover her with kisses,  
****or wring her neck.  
****Exhaustion finally claims me.  
****I am forced to call Victor and ask him to come and get me.  
****At the Tower I speak to no one.  
****I go to my room and fall into a  
****profound  
****slumber,  
****and know no more.**

**Two mornings after that, a knock at my door pulls me awake. It is Victor, I can tell.  
****I rise and open the portal.  
**"**What?"**

**"Package came for you."  
He held out a small box.**

**My eyes widen.  
****My hand trembles as I take it and close the door without even thanking him.  
****I can tell it is from her.  
****It has her vibrations, her scent.  
****I rip off the paper, and tear open the lid.  
****Inside is a small leather bag and a few folded sheets of paper.  
****I open the note and read her flowing script.**

_**My Dear One – **_

_**I didn't want to do that. But I couldn't think of any other way to save you. **_

_**It sucks ****major**** wang to think that I had to save you from ****me****. I don't much like **_

_**that. But it is what it is. You weren't going to let me go. I could tell. You **_

_**didn't really leave me much of a choice. So you won't be able to find me **_

_**now. I'm already a long way off, and I think I'll be leaving the continent for a **_

_**while. I speak a couple of other languages, so that'll help. And, no, I'm not **_

_**telling you which ones, either. Stay there! I mean it. You have a job to do. The **_

_**Titans … gods, I can't believe I'm saying this … the Titans need you. Jump **_

_**City needs you. I need you, too, but you know what Spock said. The needs of **_

_**the many and all that. Yeah, it's existential bullshit, but I think it applies in **_

_**this case. So I'm going to go see what I can do about a Jinx Improvement **_

_**Project. If it works, I'll be back. That doesn't mean you have to 'wait for me' **_

_**like some kind of gothic novel heroine. If you meet somebody, just be happy. **_

_**Anymore that's all I want for you. It just hurts a WHOLE HELL OF A LOT **_

_**to know that you wouldn't be able to be happy with me. But I'm a realist (that **_

_**means I'm grounded in reality better than you are, so ha-ha and yay me) and **_

_**if a relationship is doomed from the start, there isn't much point in staying in **_

_**it. Do I sound like a doomcrow? Sorry if I do. I want us to be together, because I **_

_**love you. You should probably know that I haven't said that to anyone else. I kinda **_

_**had a crush on Wally for a while, but he's an even bigger kid than me, and that **_

_**got old pretty quick. I've admired you for almost as long as I've known you, and I **_

_**thought you were cute off the bat. The way I feel about you now. Well. It's hard to **_

_**put into words. I'm nobody's idea of a poet, and that's what it would take. Or maybe **_

_**a really good ballad, but I don't play any musical instruments either. So where does **_

_**that leave us? I'm gonna have a whack at going straight. We'll see how that goes. **_

_**If it works, I'll find you. If you're still available, and you don't hate me, we'll take it from **_

_**there. But I just couldn't do it with you near me. You're too big a distraction, and I'm **_

_**no good at that focused concentration stuff as it is. But I know you must be … you **_

_**are more than likely pretty sore at me. I don't blame you. I'd be hurt, too, in your place. **_

_**And if you want to forget about it for a while, that's what the bag's for. I researched a **_

_**spell (okay, I had somebody competent research it for me) that will let you forget specific **_

_**things if you want to. The bag has the ingredients, and the incantation is on the last **_

_**page of this note. I'm not saying you have to, or even that you need to, but you looked **_

_**like you were in a lot of pain, and that's my fault, and I want to make it up to you if I can. **_

_**So the spell's there if you want it. And I guess that's all. Just … whatever you end up **_

_**doing, please believe that I do love you, and I want what's – that is, all this, what I'm doing, **_

_**this is all because of that. Because I love you. If you think I'm weird, well then okay. **_

_**I can deal. But you had to know.**_

_**All My Love, **_

_**Jinx**_

**I look at the last sheet and there is the spell written out.  
****It is called 'The Forget-Me-Nut'.  
****I open the bag and see a large acorn inside.  
****This, I decide, is a low blow:  
****ending a relationship with an awful pun.  
****It's just like something she'd do.**

**The pain sears my world as it  
****slams  
****home to me again that she is gone.**

**Well,  
****if that's the way she wants it,  
****by Azar,  
****I can play that way, too.  
****I read the spell.  
****I set out the ingredients and light the candles.  
****This is Psychic Sorcery, and no stretch for me.  
****She wants me happy?  
****Fine.  
****I'll forget her.  
****And I'll be happy.  
****I start the incantation …**

Sunlight warmed the back of Raven's head. She stirred, her eyes opening slowly to half-mast. A few seconds later, they popped fully open.

There, not ten centimeters away, was the top of Jinx's head, snuggled into Raven's bosom. Her shoulders lifted slightly in her sleep as she drew a breath, and her left arm was draped across Raven's flank.

The empath didn't move, not the tiniest fraction, as she went over all this new information. Everything fell into place. It _wasn't_ Jinx! She hadn't invaded Raven's head at all. Raven did it to herself! In a fit of pique, she had erased all traces of her relationship with the thief. And no wonder, with how poorly she'd behaved! She blushed hard as the images paraded across the front of her mind.

Glancing down again at the short, blond hair, she decided that Jinx looked really good that way. Her heart sped up again as other images crowded in. Jinx was right here, beside her ... right here in her bed, close and warm and soft … and _right here!_ Her chest swelling dangerously, Raven all but bathed in the returning emotions. Love and wonder and pride and admiration and a fierce, deathless will to protect. She eased her right arm down from where it had been over her head and carefully embraced the other girl.

Jinx made a small, tender, satisfied noise and repositioned herself a little closer, moving her head so that Raven could see her face. She drew a deep breath, and a smile drifted across her lips.

Those lips.

An unsteady fingertip lightly traced the outline of Jinx's mouth. She sniffed, took another deep breath, and reached up to rub at her face. Then her eyes opened. She was staring directly into Raven's chest, and instantly stilled. Her eyes flicked up to meet Raven's, and her face flamed. An attempt to pull away was quickly scotched as the empath pulled her back. "_You_ are not going _anywhere_."

"… um …"

"I remember everything now. You were right. I behaved like a spoiled child. But listen, little Missy, you weren't a whole lot better."

Jinx swallowed a couple of times and mumbled something.

"What?"

"I said … if we're gonna argue, I need to pee first."

That pulled a long chuckle from her captor. Raven said, "No."

Raising an eyebrow, Jinx responded, "Huh? You want me to wet the bed?"

Raven closed her eyes and concentrated. There was a weird, cold twisting in Jinx's nether region and a gurgling sound from the bathroom. She yelped and looked at Raven. "Did you just … you did!"

"I told you. You aren't going anywhere."

"That is _**so**_ cheating!"

"And I _so_ do not care. I deprived myself of your companionship for close to three and a half years. I caused you incalculable suffering, and I intend to make up for lost time, and we are going to start … right … now." She punctuated her comments by kissing both of Jinx's eyes and then the tip of her nose.

Jinx felt like a puddle of butter, gasping at Raven's touch.

Raven flipped up so that she lay along the top of the taller girl. "I owe you, Jinx." She ran a delicate tongue along the curve of Jinx's jaw. "I owe you big time. You placed my well-being above your own desires. Gave me what I needed, not what I wanted." Feather-light kisses traced the wildly-beating pulse in Jinx's neck, down to her collarbone. "That is the soul and essence of love. I can't imagine a greater gift. And I'm going to spend the rest of my life repaying you."

Jinx threw her arms around her lover and hung on for all she was worth.

####

Starfire had been to her room to get a couple of items she thought might be useful in preparing supper. She was trying to keep one of them from climbing out of the sack when she floated past Raven's door, and she stopped, nonplussed. There were … unusual sounds coming from within. Frowning in concentration, she leaned an ear against the door …

A few seconds later she was speeding away, toward the kitchen, blushing hard enough to read by. She nearly ran over Victor in her blind haste. He yelped, caught her, steadied himself, and said, "Damn, Star, you okay?"

"YesfriendVictorIamfine,thankyou,Iamgoingtothekitchennow." She whooshed past him fast enough to draw a stiff breeze behind her.

_What the hell?_

He looked after her, then looked back up the hall. A grin slowly took over his face. Moving as quietly as he could, he walked back toward Raven's room …

Later, during supper, at which Jinx and Raven were notably absent, Victor made what sounded to the others like an innocent comment to Starfire about how sounds travel in the hallways. That statement had her stuttering and her face nearly giving off smoke. Dick and Gar exchanged puzzled looks, shrugged, and went back to shoveling in the Chinese takeout they'd gotten after the dinner Starfire had made escaped.

**TT TT TT TT TT TT TT TT**

_**Author's Note:**_

_**Yes, I know, this sucker is ridiculously long … nearly 13,000 words. It practically qualifies as a short story by itself. But the characters had a lot to say, and Raven had a lot to catch up on, and I'm sorry, but that's just how it came out.**_

_**Opinion-poll time: Does the story still fit within a 'T' rating? I've had some comment about **__**that.**_

_**Let me know what you all think! And thanks for reading.**_

_**- Concolor**_


	5. Chapter 5 Hunting

**ENEMY OF MY ENEMY**

...

**[Author's Note: This is the first chapter that I think might put the story's rating into the 'M' category ... but probably not for the reasons you may imagine at first. I would appreciate it if those who read would let me know your opinions on that score. Thanks!]**

...

_[Disclaimer: I own a 1990 Ford F150 that needs new ball joints. I own a nice chainsaw. That combination means I can cut my own firewood, which is good because I own a fireplace insert with an external air supply, which is really nice in this cold weather. But I do not own the Titans, or anything else DC came up with. Pity, eh?]_

_**Chapter Five - **_

Life … is good.

No, seriously.

Hey, sorry about skipping yesterday. We were … that is, I had some … distractions. One, anyway. And can she ever rock my world!

Sorry, sorry! TMI and all that. Where was I?

Oh, right. Starting. Yeah. What's on the agenda?

Well, Raven got her mind straightened out. As far as we can tell – and we've done a good bit of cross-checking – she isn't missing any more … uh … that is, any memories. That information seems to … um … ohhhh … seems to have mellowed …

Will you stop that, I'm tryin' to work here!

… mellowed her out _**a lot**_. Which is fine by me.

Yesterday we talked about Neron and his pet sorcerer. All day. I pretty much gave her everything I had, all the … what?

Oh, hush! It's **not** a double entendre! … um … well, not much.

… all the … uh … damn it, Rae, you got me off track! … right, all the notebooks, the pictures, and a couple of audio bits. Emptied out my magic bag and we catalogued everything. I had a lot more junk in there than I remem…

Eek! Hey, hands off, that's my junk!

Errghh! _**Catalogued!**_ We catalogued everything, and Rae was worried that we might not have the right tools, but I showed her how things could go … to … uh … go together, so that was good … _damn_, that's good … um … and then she … then sheeeeee … oh.

Not … n-not now! Gimme a minute. Just … I have to … oh, gods …

_(there is an eighty-seven second blank spot during the recording session)_

Sorry. _(pant-pant)_ Speaking of distractions. _(pant-pant)_ But she stepped out for a sec. Where was I?

Oh, right, the stuff. Magic items. Yeah, turns out she … _whew_ … gotta catch my breath … she knows how to make that 3DBB stand up and sing! It's got more uses than I knew about, plus it can combine functions with a bunch of other things, like, for instance, there's a staff carved outta jade, and a big, alabaster bowl, and this little weird-lookin' doohickey that makes potions, and if you put 'em all together in just the right way, you can _totally_ control the weather. Call rain, make storms, keep clouds away. Whatever. I don't even want to _think_ about what Dorno would do with that kind of power. As if he needs more than he's got.

Yeah, that's another thing. Rae did some background on the guy. Thought I knew all about him. Ha. In a word, _ha!_ He's mixed up in more badass shit than you could stir with a boat paddle. Assassinations, and controlling kings and presidents and newspapers and radio and vid and I don't know what all else. He's really doin' his part to fix things so that it's easy for Neron to set up shop when he gets here. Bastard.

Ooo, cocoa! Thanks, Rae!

Ya know, I don't get evil sorcerers. _(ssssip)_ Oh, wow, this is good stuff!

_(there is a forty-four second pause punctuated by various sipping noises in the background)_

Okay, evil sorcerers, right? I mean, seriously, does Dorno _really_ think Neron's gonna let him keep any power? Hell, if he's smart enough to craft the magic necessary to open the rift to get a demon lord here in the first … ah, first place, you'd think he'd be smart enough to … um, to realize that Neron won't … need … need him … once he's … mmmm …

Oh …

That's … nice.

_(there is a fifty-nine second blank spot on the recording at this point)_

This ain't … oh, gods … workin' right now. I'm … gonna … close up here. Got … damn, Rae … got things to see, people to do. Later.

####

_(the previous day)_

Raven stared in shock at the object in Jinx's hand. Roughly six centimeters across, the small faceted globe was a light, translucent green; one side had an opaque blood-red spot that she couldn't quite cover with her thumb. "That … can't _possibly_ be what it looks like."

"If you think it looks like the Eye of Eru then, yeah, it sure can." Jinx held it out, offering it to the other girl, who took it gingerly. "Just one more fine example of what Dorno collected that I nicked from him."

Raven rolled an eye over her way. "And you're _sure_ he doesn't know that it was you that cleaned out his cache?"

"Pretty sure. Since I was inside when the wards were established, that made me invisible, too. I was careful about reestablishing my presence. I didn't remove all the wards, just the ones that would be inconvenient."

An 'ah-ha' look lit up the empath's face. "That must be why Vic's DNA scanner couldn't pick you up."

"The what?"

"Vic tried to find you with a remote scan unit that works off DNA recognition after you showed up in my room that first time."

"Oh. Yeah, maybe. Stealth is part of the Doppelganger spell, too, though."

"Isn't that just for magical scans?"

"… ehhh … maybe? I dunno. Either way, I'm still warded against long-range detection, and that has been _**real**_ helpful in my little war."

"I can imagine." Raven turned her attention back to the jewel. "I wonder where he found it."

"No clue. Just like most of the other fantastic stuff I lifted, it was part of the cache. I don't know how many others he has, but I found three more that I managed to get into and pilfer."

"I'll bet he wants you _**so**_ dead."

"Yep. Good thing he doesn't know who I am, huh?"

Holding the Eye of Eru up to the light, Raven peered into it. "Is it … occupied?"

"Not as far as I know. I did some basic detections on it, and came up blank."

"Well, that's a relief." She placed it back into its ornately-carved wooden box and closed and fastened the lid. "I wonder why he would want it, though. What does an inescapable prison for _mortals_ have to do with summoning a demon lord?"

Jinx gave her a quick and surreptitious glance before saying, "Ya got me. I wondered that same thing about a lot of the stuff he had squirreled away. To me it looked more like the nest of a pack rat than anything a sorcerer intent on a project would collect." Offering her companion a one-shoulder shrug, she said, "Maybe he's off his nut."

Raven snorted. "We should be so lucky. No, I think there's method in there somewhere. That it isn't very obvious doesn't make me feel any better." She indicated another box. "What's that?"

"Heh. Yeah. You'll love this one." She scooted the small box over between them and pressed several studs on its face in quick succession, whereupon the top slid to one side. "It took me a while to find out what this thing is, but you can bet I'll have it on me when we go after the bastard." Tilting the box toward Raven, she said, "Look, but don't touch."

The object inside was small, apparently a tetrahedron about two centimeters on an edge. It was translucent, softly glowing with a purple light.

"It's pretty. Why not touch it?"

"It's a holy relic. I don't know how it would react to your demonic heritage."

"Humph. What's it do?"

"It's a chaos amplifier."

"… Come again?"

Jinx gave her that Cheshire Cat grin. "Is that an offer?"

Coloring slightly, Raven parried, "Save it for later. Don't get distracted."

"That's freakin' hilarious, coming from you."

"Maybe so. Right now, just explain that thing please."

"As you wish, Milady. This little jewel here, if I hold it, will increase the power behind my hex blasts."

"Really? Wow. How much?"

"A lot. It's hard to gauge, but I'd say … a factor of four. Maybe six."

"Dang!"

"Yeah, it's pretty sweet. The mayhem I can dish out!"

"That ought to foul up any spells he tries on us."

"With enough luck and advance planning, he won't know we're there to fight until it's too late."

"I like that plan." She pointed at another item. "Is that a hat?"

"Yeah, that'd be my guess. I haven't figured out what it does yet. You wanna have a go?"

"Sure!"

And so it went the entire day. They sorted out everything in the magic bag, organized what they could identify, and sequestered the few unknowns for later study. Around six that evening, Starfire knocked at Raven's door to inquire as to their possible participation in supper. Raven, in a generous mood, teleported over to their favorite restaurant and came back with half a dozen large pizzas in enough variety to please everyone.

####

_(later that night)_

Shadows cast by the waning crescent moon fell across Jinx as she lay on Raven's bed, trying to catch her breath. As it turned out, a demonic heritage came with truly _tremendous_ stamina, and even though Jinx was a metahuman in top physical condition, she couldn't quite keep up with her new lover.

Not that she was complaining.

Sauntering out of the bathroom, Raven came over to the bed and offered Jinx a glass of water, which she accepted gratefully. After getting it back empty and placing it on the floor, the empath crawled up beside the taller girl and reclined, resting her head on a fist and drawing in a deep breath through her nose. The scent of lovemaking was strong, and she found it a heady draught indeed. Jinx was still giving vent to the occasional pant, her skin lightly dewed with their mingled sweat, and Raven leaned down and licked some off her neck. That drew from her an exhausted sort of squeak, followed by, "No … n-no more … not yet … gimme … a minute … or three."

"Sure." Raven allowed a little smile to grace her features as she drank in the view. The demi-demon had soon discovered that Jinx's toned form encompassed everything that she found attractive in a lover. Her strength, her soft skin, her lean limbs and flat belly, the small, high breasts, the gorgeous fuchsia eyes and startlingly full lips … and the whole was most _definitely_ greater than the sum of the parts. Raven had no other experience with love-making, but she was as sure as a mortal could be that what they had was about as good as it could get. And Jinx was nothing if not enthusiastic.

Trailing a languid finger along the contour of Jinx's tattoo, Raven followed the edge from her right collar bone, down across her chest and over her short ribs, pulling a low moan from the girl. She'd already questioned Jinx a few times about the elaborate decoration. Raven found it exotic and artistic and alluring, and said as much. But the thief was short on answers as to why she'd gotten it and where the idea for the pattern came from. She'd just decided to do it one day, she said, and went for it. The design still tickled Raven's memory. There was something vaguely familiar about the loops and curls and flourishes, but the rest of the picture, the context that she strongly suspected would give it some meaning, eluded her.

Getting Jinx's attention, she gave her head a little sideways nod. The thief understood and rolled over onto her front so that Raven could start the massage. Depending on how each of them reacted, this would either be a cool-down from their rather strenuous twist of the sheets, or would get them hot enough to resume their earlier activities. Raven could go either way, and figured she'd just follow Jinx's lead. No matter how it ended up, though, she got to rub her hands all over the tight, pale body, so in her mind it was an unqualified Win.

####

_(two days later)_

"This place sure does look weird."

"I'll say. If I didn't know better, I'd say we weren't even on Earth."

The landscape that so confounded the two young women was a section of the upper Midwest known as the Missouri Breaks. Though stunningly beautiful, the Breaks are desolate, remote, and inhospitable, and flying is the only really feasible way to move around there. They were currently floating along a heavily-broken cliff face, studying the northern side for clues.

The question of Jinx's ability in _that_ regard was laid to rest a few days earlier. She couldn't truly fly if only using her own magic, but a certain item she had liberated from Dorno was a belt that allowed the user to levitate. That, combined with another spell she knew, allowed her to mimic flight quite nicely … and it didn't tire her out at all.

One of the main reasons that Jinx was convinced Velez-al'Aziz would be performing his ritual somewhere on the North American continent was that all of the caches she had found were there. It made sense to her that he wouldn't locate them too terribly far from what she was thinking of as 'Ground Zero', and Raven couldn't really argue with the logic. Plotting the cache sites on a map and applying a bit of common sense had led them to the Breaks. If the sorcerer desired a secluded spot for the summoning, he could hardly have found a better one. Even by Montana standards, this was isolated.

Creative use of the 3DBB seemed to indicate that they would find _something_ important in this general area. Exactly what was unclear. Neither the Tarot nor the Bones nor Raven's (rather limited) clairvoyant abilities gave them any clues as to the nature (or possible danger) of their goal here, so their search turned out to be a bit haphazard. The last few hours found them wandering rather aimlessly up and down various clefts and gullies and dry washes.

At one point, though, Jinx got a tug of intuition, and pointing at a small ledge sticking out of the canyon wall about halfway down, she gave Raven a questioning look. The empath shrugged and headed for it, Jinx following.

When they landed, Raven asked, "Was there something special about this spur of rock that makes it better than the sixty million or so others just like it?"

Pulling out her 'wallet', Jinx answered, "Maybe. Something about it just … feels right. And I thought, what the hell, since we were here, maybe the 3DBB would give us some more info. You know, close to the source and all."

Raven didn't have a better idea, so they set it up and began tossing questions at it. But less than a minute passed before they heard a low, smooth voice say, "Perhaps I can be of assistance."

Whirling around with identical gasps, the girls stared, bug-eyed, at the man perched on a rock at the other end of the ledge. Tall, pale and very muscular, he wore a short-sleeved coverall, white, like his long hair; his feet were bare. He peered at them with piercing black eyes from deep under heavy brows. Neither girl could have guessed his age, had anyone asked.

Jinx's hands filled with balls of pink fire. The man cocked his head at them, made a small gesture with two fingers … and Jinx's hex matrix faded to background noise. "I'd rather you didn't do that, if you don't mind."

Suddenly very frightened, Jinx demanded, "Who are you?"

He took his time answering, studying each young woman in turn. His eyes narrowed after gazing at Raven for a bit. "You have met Malchior!"

Taken aback, Raven was unable to speak at first, her mind devolving into a whirl of contradictory images. Finally she said, "How … how do you know of … him?"

"I think a better question would be how _**you**_ know him. He was supposed to be trapped."

"… Yes. In a book. A spellbook."

"Spellbook?" The man shook his head. "I will have to look into that. Obviously something changed." He stepped down off the rock and came over to them. "He harmed you. That much is clear. But you have recovered. It was not permanent damage. How remarkable."

Raven was totally becalmed. "… How do you know that?"

He ignored her question. "Truly, you are two most exceptional." Clasping his hands behind his back, he continued, "You may call me Set."

"… Set?" This from Jinx. "You mean, like the old Egyptian god?"

"Feh. I haven't been in Egypt in millennia. They never even _**tried**_ to understand what I was doing. Morons. No, for purposes of our discussion here, just assume I am someone else."

Jinx's fear level spiked considerably. Set made a disgusted noise and said, "Please. If I were intent on harming you, you'd be dead already. Do try to tone down the abject terror, if you would. It grates on my nerves."

She swallowed, as well as she could with a mouth gone dry as sandpaper, then smoothed her hair back shakily and nodded. "O-okay."

"Now," he said, "back to basics. You are Jinx. That is not the name you were given at birth, but it suits you." He turned to Raven. "And you … are not entirely human. Half … demon, is it?"

She nodded, her eyes huge.

"Interesting. You have adapted well, Raven Roth."

The girls looked at each other and then back at Set. Raven cleared her throat and said, "You, ah, asked if you could be of assistance. Was that … in general or, ah … are you already aware of what we are, um, trying to accomplish? Here?"

Set's beetling brows drew together for a moment. "So this wizard is going to summon a demon?"

Raven nodded. "Neron. He's related to Trigon, my sire."

"But you have no wish to see him."

"My … father sired me only as a means for gaining access to this dimension. I was supposed to die in the process. So, no, in this case blood is not thicker than water."

A wry chuckle escaped the man. "So it would seem. And you are trying to determine where this ritual is to take place."

"We are."

"Well. How interesting. I do not have any knowledge of this event. Precognition isn't my long suit, and that sort of forecasting tends to be sloppy at the best of times. Commodities futures are much more reliable."

Jinx shot Raven a quizzical look. "Commodities?"

"Yes," responded Set, "some of my compatriots like to play the market, as you humans put it. It is an amusing diversion."

Raven wondered _What does he mean by 'You humans'?_ and asked, "So … if you aren't human … what are you?"

He smiled then, the first time they had a good look at his teeth, and the double row of needle-sharp fangs brought prickles up on their skin. "I think you already know the answer to that." He began to get taller and stepped back. His arms morphed into huge wings, and with a brief, unsettling twisting of local reality, the girls were staring up at an immense, gray-scaled dragon. His voice sounded in their minds. _**If you would, kindly fly up here and settle yourselves on my neck. I intend to go have a look at the state of Malchior's current trap.**_

"Fly … but … um …"

_**It is some two thousand kilometers from here to your home. Can you teleport that distance?**_

"Ah … no."

_**I thought not. Now climb aboard. I do not wish to have to disassemble your Tower to find the book.**_

After securing the 3DBB and re-folding the valise, they floated up and found seats for themselves behind his head. Raven thought, _He must be a trusting sort to let a witch and a sorcerer this close to him._

_**Not at all, my dear. I simply have a very accurate measure of the ratio between your powers and mine.**_

Set then soared upward some thousand meters or so, hovered in mid-air, and spoke a Word of Power. There was a stone-shattering report accompanied by a monstrous bolt of lightning, and they vanished.

####

Garfield Logan had finished the morning phase of his patrol for the day and was headed back to the Tower, anticipating a barbecued tofu stir-fry for lunch. His peregrine falcon form was getting him there in short order. He could have gone faster as a pterodactyl or a roc, but those forms tended to cause something of a stir among any spectators below, and he did his best to maintain an understated presence. So he may be excused if he felt a bit of a shock when a _truly_ legendary beast appeared in the space in front of him and landed on the Tower's roof.

He didn't know what to make of this. The dragon, which appeared to bulk about as much as the Tower, didn't look like it was attacking the building. The thing was gargantuan, _much_ larger than any creature he had ever presented, and he couldn't really think of any way to fight it if it came to that.

_**Fear not. It won't.**_

The voice in his head nearly knocked him out of the sky. Then he saw the dragon's form blur and swiftly shrink out of sight. With all due haste he flew the remaining distance to the Tower and morphed into his base state at the roof door. Raven and Jinx stood there with a tall, rugged-looking fellow in a white coverall. "Hey! There was a dragon! Big! Really big! I saw a dragon! Huge! It was …" He seemed to finally realize that the girls were there in front of him. "Wha … I thought you two went to Minnesota or someplace!"

Slightly irritated, Raven answered, "It was Montana, and we did." Her ears were still ringing from the violence of the teleport. Jinx was actually holding her head with both hands, her eyes squeezed shut.

The man stepped forward. "Garfield Logan, I am Set. I have no quarrel with you. I am here with Raven Roth to retrieve the spellbook containing the soul of Malchior."

His mouth dropping open, Gar looked over at Raven. "How's he know about Malchior?"

"Because," answered Set, "I was one of the ones who imprisoned him."

All three of the young people gaped at him. Gar stuttered, "Bu-bu-but wasn't he, like, put in that book … like, a thousand years ago?"

"It was closer to seven thousand. And we did not place him in a _book_. He was in a jewel, that was in turn locked in an invisible stone chest, and _that_ placed at the bottom of a well which was then blocked with a large boulder. I would be very curious to know how he escaped, and what led to his being locked in something as fragile as a book." He stared downward. "Very fragile. I can feel him." And he faded down through the roof. Raven gave a startled grunt and followed him. The rest of them raced down the stairs.

Raven phased into her room to find Set standing in front of her dresser. "Here, let me get it for you." She moved quickly to stand beside him, pulled open the drawer, used her power to reveal and then unlock the secret compartment, and pulled out the book. As she touched it, the cover tried to move out of her grasp, but she telekinetically lifted it and passed it to Set.

When it touched his hand, a light stream of smoke wafted up at the contact points, and the book began to twist and contort violently. Set allowed himself a smile that Raven could only think of as feral. He turned an eye to the empath and stated, "You are a most accomplished sorceress to have been able to force him back into the book. Nevertheless, its hold on him is tenuous." A golden glow surrounded him, brightest around his hand and in his eyes, and the book froze and then turned to stone. "Malchior always fancied himself a high master of the mystic arts. He should have paid more attention to the gifts he was born with instead of the inferior magicks you mortals practice."

"I, for one, am glad that he did not. He nearly killed us all as it was."

The forefinger on Set's left hand suddenly grew a long talon, with which he swiped a tear in reality. A silvery-gray mist began to ooze out, but he tossed the stone book into the rift and sealed it back up. Turning again to Raven, he said, "Now, about your demon problem."

"Yes! Neron. He's …"

"Your cousin. That, I gathered. But you are searching for that misguided wizard who is intent on bringing him into our dimension." Set shook his head. "This must not be allowed. I like our dimension in its current state of non-demonic dominance."

"So do I."

He flourished his right hand briefly and a small, golden jewel appeared, then slid over toward Raven; she caught it out of the air and examined it. "When you find the sorcerer, you must let me know. I will come and dispatch him."

"What if we don't find him before Neron shows up?"

"Then I am afraid we might need to abandon this plane and move to another."

"We?"

"We dragons."

"You … can't fight him?"

"It is possible that we might be able to, but not very likely. I do not have a good approximation of Neron's power. If he is as powerful as Trigon, or even anywhere close, there would be little we could do." He placed a hand on her shoulder, staring at her intently. "We remember. Mortals do not; your memories were remade when you took Trigon's power and cast him down. But if you had not been able to do that, we would have departed. We do not fight wars we cannot win."

"But if _you_ can't oppose him, what hope do _we_ have? I don't have the same kind of advantage over him that I did over my sire!"

"In that case, were I you, I would make every effort to locate the wizard." He patted her shoulder and stepped back. "I certainly intend to." And with a sharp crack and a lingering scent of ozone, he was gone.

Two seconds later her door slid open and Jinx and the rest of the Titans tumbled in. Jinx zipped over to her lover and grabbed her arms. "Are you okay? What happened? Where'd he go? Was Malchior still in there? Did he get the book? Are you hurt? Rae, say something!"

"If you'll hush."

Jinx stepped back and made a 'zip' motion across her mouth.

"Yes, I gave him the book. Malchior tried to escape. Set turned the book to stone and tossed it into another dimension. Then he left."

"… That's it?"

"Pretty much."

"He's not gonna help us with Dorno?"

"Well …" she held up the jewel. "He gave me this and said to call him when we find the wizard. And he said he'd be looking, too."

"Huh. I'd have thought he'd be more … I dunno, _involved_. Or something."

"He's afraid of Neron."

"Serious?"

"Well … he said the dragons wouldn't fight him."

The other Titans had only been listening up to that point, but then Nightwing, Cyborg, and Starfire all gasped. Dick said, "Dragons? What dragons, what are you talking about?"

Gar poked him in the arm. "Dude, he was a dragon! One mother-humpin' _monster_ of a dragon, too! Big as the Tower! I saw him on my way in."

"And dragons, it seems," added Raven, "can shape-shift at will. He looked human when we weren't … when he wasn't … ah, teleporting with us."

Vic and Kori looked at each other. The Tamaranean asked, "Where did you meet a dragon?"

"In Montana. I don't know if he lives there or was just … curious about what we were doing. He was … distant. But very polite; nothing like Malchior."

Nightwing asked, "Didn't Malchior say that _he_ was the last dragon?"

"Malchior lied about a lot of other things, too."

Chagrined, the team leader had to admit that. "Sorry. My bad. So …" He searched for the right words. "How did you … meet?"

"We were searching the Missouri Breaks," answered Jinx. "We'd stopped and were using the 3DBB to try for a better idea of where to look, and he just … showed up. We never heard or saw him coming."

"You know," said Raven with a speculative look on her face, "the 3DBB and all your castings said we should go to the Breaks because we'd find something important. Maybe it all meant we'd meet Set."

"Huh. Could be."

"And he left me this." She showed them the golden jewel. "He said to use it to contact him when we found Velez-al'Aziz, and he'd come and, ah, 'dispatch' him."

Jinx grinned. "I like that idea! That's a hell of a lot better than us trying to square off against him."

"I couldn't agree more."

####

The discussion over lunch centered on what else they could do to locate the missing wizard. Nightwing and Cyborg headed off to the computer lab to run analyses of what they knew of his previous patterns. Starfire flew up to the JLA Watchtower satellite to apprise them of the coming doom and get them involved in the search. Jinx took her Tarot deck and the Bones up to the roof to try variations on the previous themes. Raven went to her room to meditate and see if she could get some clairvoyant glimmers. Changeling took over patrolling duties since he couldn't figure out anything else he could do to help.

They had, by Jinx's reckoning, four and a half days to find him and stop him, and she was doing everything in her power to hold down her rising panic and hide it from her lover. If they discovered his hideout before he summoned Neron, all would (probably) be well. However, if Neron actually showed up, she would be forced into what she thought of as the 'nuclear option', and her chances of making it out unscathed would get vanishingly small. This wasn't something she had shared with Raven. She could easily predict the empath's response, and that was one more headache Jinx didn't need. Recently, however, she had added a new twist to her last-ditch plan that might give her some tiny smidgen of hope. She held onto that, and tried not to think of the several thousand ways that everything could go disastrously wrong.

####

Dorno Velez-al'Aziz liked the cold. He had been impervious to damage from that quarter for close to a century, and having his headquarters hidden deep in an ice cave on the Antarctic land mass helped to assure a lack of unexpected visitors. It also had the unfortunate side effect of limiting the number of minions available, since his habit of forgetting to heat the place tended to kill them.

He had spent some sixty years, after reaching his full power, in hunting down other high-level sorcerers, trapping them, stealing what of their magic he could use, and then killing them. The generously-sized bag of magical artifacts that ended up in Jinx's possession only represented a fraction of his total collection, and many of the ones he thought more useful he had actually incorporated into his robes or his staff. (Yes, that's right. He carried a staff and wore a white, floor-length robe. In addition he let his hair grow out long and straight, and then dyed it white, to get it to look like Saruman's. His last apprentice should never have given him that boxed set of The Lord of the Rings.)

So, he had covered all the bases he could think of, vis-à-vis his personal protection. He had a ring of levitation that could tell if he were falling uncontrollably. It would slow his descent to a gentle five centimeters per second and stop him a meter above any physical surface. The robe would absorb any and all electromagnetic energy directed his way, converting it to sorcerous mana and fueling his subsequent spells. His skin was proof against practically any projectile, sharp or blunt, and he regenerated at a ferocious rate whenever something did manage to damage him. Of course, with skin _that_ hard and durable, he had sacrificed a measure of mobility. It meant there were a few spells he could no longer cast due to decreased dexterity, but that didn't concern him.

He was human. He was deeply into sorcerous magic, and had been for two centuries. The only realistic outcome of that state of affairs was madness, and Dorno was no exception. He was completely bug-nuts, which went a long way toward explaining why he was even considering bringing Neron into our dimension. It also explained why he only used outhouses that had been dug according to his designs (he never used any sort of commode that connected to a sewer system, since there was no protection from the Giant Mutant Worm-Rats that lived there) and why he refused to teleport anywhere (the ghosts of his former victims would cleverly hide in the shadows at each end of the teleport gate so they could pounce on him and Eat His Brain). He traveled by conventional means, but always did so while invisible, as he couldn't risk the Galactic Death Tax Patrol recognizing him; they would then try to seize his assets in lieu of his actually being dead. He'd lost more cats that way. Also, he no longer touched other people. In fact, the only other being he had touched voluntarily in nearly seventy years was his familiar, an aged pseudo-dragon named Irving that mostly just slept. It wasn't as if Dorno had anything for it to do most days.

That being said, it must be kept in mind that Velez-al'Aziz was also desperately wicked and a thoroughgoing bastard of the first order. He received a large measure of enjoyment from other people's pain and terror, and truly loved executing a good mind-fuck on some innocent … preferably, someone young.

He had three at the moment, and was deeply engrossed in his latest experiment. The two boys and their (very open-minded) lover were students at a major Argentine university, were all studying psychology, and were all in their senior year. That made the irony all the more delicious for the deranged wizard. She should be thanking him. He was giving her more practical experience than she'd get in years of field work.

The girl, Amelia, was an amateur pilot with about eight hundred hours under her belt. Currently she was strapped into a realistic aircraft simulator, which she was 'flying' through various obstacle courses. Virtual enemies shot at her from the ground; virtual fighter planes strafed her craft. Her goal was to fight them off, to remain unmolested and intact. There were penalties if she didn't.

Tomas, the slightly older boy, was in the room across from Amelia. She could see him through the front window of the 'cockpit'. His naked and bleeding body was strapped to a sophisticated rack sort of thing where small, floating knives menaced him. His head was a few meters closer, and connected to his body via a series of tubes and fine wires. He was fully conscious, and completely aware of what had happened to him, and the stress had reduced him to 'gibbering idiot' status. Their captor had promised to reverse the process if she won.

Berto, the younger boy, was in the room beside Tomas. Amelia couldn't see him … but she could hear his screams.

Every time she made a mistake, she received an electric shock; then a knife would cut Tomas, or something else would happen to Berto. She didn't know the details, but it sounded excruciating; her mind filled in the blank spots.

She'd been in the simulator for twenty-two straight hours. It was taking all her effort and concentration to stay awake and focused, but the mistakes were coming more frequently. Berto was sobbing and wailing continuously, punctuated by frequent howls of agony. Tomas's body was a limp, bloody mess that twitched every few seconds.

If she could last two more hours … the clock on the instrument panel counted down her time, and she glanced at it when she could afford to. But enemy aircraft were getting thicker, and she was out of ammo and low on fuel. One of the fighters had hit a fuel tank, and she couldn't risk any maneuvers that would tilt the plane hard to port. She tried to think of ways to escape, tricks she could use to lose them. Sometimes there were clouds, and she was flying over a tropical archipelago with lots of steep mountains. Maybe she could lose them there …

Another frantic hour passed while her lovers slowly died. Another thirty minutes … then fifteen … then ten …

With four minutes remaining on the countdown clock, she wheeled out of a cloud bank and found herself facing a cliff wall where none should be. Banking hard to starboard, she pulled at the sluggish controls for all she was worth, but the unyielding stone closed in. With a barely audible gasp – all she had left then, being all but dead on her ass – she closed her eyes as the mountain came up and smacked her.

The simulation ended. She collapsed over the controls, panting heavily, her impossibly scratchy eyes leaking tears.

"You failed."

She whimpered, "Please … please let them go."

"There is a substantial penalty for early withdrawal." Her simulator moved forward, closing the remaining distance between her and Tomas. Some unseen force grabbed her hair and jerked her head up. "See what you have done."

"… No … Please …"

There were more knives, even several around his head. As she watched, horrified, they all plunged in, Tomas writhed in brief pain, then went slack. Amelia wept in inconsolable pain, but she was too tired to stand, much less fight her way out of the simulator. It wheeled around to the right so that Berto's room came into view, and she drew a long breath and then screamed and screamed and screamed.

"You failed your lovers," came the low, smooth, hateful voice. "How could you let them down like this? Don't you care about them at all?"

Ropes passed through his limbs, suspending him a couple of meters off the floor. Several of his fingers were missing, as was part of one foot and most of his nose. The room was full of rats, thousands of them, and they had climbed the walls, climbed out along the ropes, and were busily engaged in eating the young man alive.

"Amelia, what am I to do with you? You had such a simple task, but I suppose you are simply not good enough. Not good enough to fly, not even able to stay awake the whole time."

"You … bastard! I'll … kill you!"

"No, Amelia, you won't. You can't. You just aren't that good. You really aren't good for much of anything, you know. But I suppose it is for the best."

"… Kill you … Kill you …"

"They were tired of you, after all."

"… Kill … what?"

"They had another lover. They were going to dump you in a week or two. So I am sure you are well shed of them. Not that it makes any difference. You'll never find anyone else to love you. Not after failing here so thoroughly."

Dazed by pain and loss and fear and lack of sleep and electrical torture, she could only gaze dully out the window.

"But you will just have to put up with it, won't you? For the rest of your miserable, worthless, useless life. Oh, but you'll get used to being alone. It won't be so bad, being shunned by anyone whose opinion matters. Maybe you can get work as a prostitute, at least until your tricks learn how miserably you failed."

A compartment opened in the control panel. There was a gun inside.

"I will take you back to the college. Of course your roommate will have to move out. She won't be able to stand being around you. And that … oh, that is interesting. I wonder if your professors will let you back into class. Surely not, knowing how you got your friends killed, how utterly useless you proved to be."

A little voice whispered in her head, _Pick it up._ She moved an exhausted, blistered hand forward.

"Naturally your mother will disown you. She has an important job, and can't afford to have the public associate her with you, not after proving what a fuck-up you are."

_That's right_, said the voice, _pick it up. That's right …_

"If you move far enough away, to a distant city where they don't know you, don't know how worthless you are, you might be able to start over. Maybe find a good pimp."

_This will fix it all_, the voice wheedled.

"Not that any decent brothel would have you. You are much too plain, and you could never satisfy Tomas or Berto anyway. I really don't know **what** you could do. Beg, I guess. Beggars can be ugly and it doesn't matter."

_Just pull the trigger. Everything will be fine._

Dorno Velez-al'Aziz stopped talking when the gunshot rang out. Then he smiled contentedly. "Beautifully done, old boy. Fine work." He called a minion – one of the new ones, since the old ones had all inconveniently frozen to death – and instructed him to clean up the experiment. A few minutes later, bored again, he started plans for his next experiment. He'd need five virgins. That was the main requirement for his summoning spell.

"Oh, that's right! I have to summon the demon. Silly me, I almost quite forgot." He tapped his staff on the ice. "Irving! Irving, come here. I have a task for you."

####

Through the soul-link he had with his puppet sorcerer, Neron heard. _It's about damned time_, he thought.

...

**[Further Author's Notes: I honestly don't know where that came from! I wasn't even planning to put any sort of Dorno-centric exposition in the story! He just came up and demanded it be there ... while dousing his curried-chicken-and-mint-chocolate-ice-cream-burrito with tartar sauce and anchovy paste.**

**No, I didn't ask. It didn't seem like a good idea. He's a real piece of work, and I'd just as soon not get to know him any better, thanks all the same.]**


	6. Chapter 6 Discovery

**ENEMY OF MY ENEMY**

_[Disclaimer: If I did own the Titans, you can bet your last centime there would be some changes forthcoming. However, that not being the case, I guess I'll have to just accept them as they are.]_

. . .

. . .

. . .

_**Chapter Six – Discovery**_

It wasn't my fault. There were 'circumstances beyond my control' and that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

What?

If you say so. … Sure. … Fine.

_**Fine**_. I'll tell 'em.

I'm sorry I skipped yesterday, but the clock is tickin' and it's not like we have a hell of a lot of time left. New moon's in two days, and we still don't … yeah, yeah, okay, so we _do_ have kind of an idea of where Dorno's gonna try his ritual. That's what got us in trouble last night.

We were in Germany – and, ya know, we still are – in this patch of dense forest west of … was it Grubach? Yeah. That's a little place south of Ulm, I think it is. West of Munich, anyhow. Not that I'm the reigning expert on European geography, y'know. I'd never been in Germany before. Didn't speak _Deutsch_, but then that's why Rae was along. That, and she wasn't about to let me out of her sight.

Sweetie, I didn't _say_ it wasn't mutual. You know how much I like … well, pretty much everything about you. I'm just sayin' … Ohhh … and that, too. … Mmm …

_(there is a one hundred thirty-two second blank spot on the recording at this point)_

Okay. I'm back. But I made a deal, so I gotta keep this kinda short.

I tried the Bones again, and got a completely different set of readings, so I broke out the Tarot and played around with them for a while. Everything pointed to central Europe, which didn't make a lick of sense as far as I could see, but then Rae … um, that is, we meditated together and after a while she got a vision. It was short, and didn't sound like it went with anything at first, but then we got to thinking about it from a 'big picture' standpoint and we both got a little uneasy about it.

So, long-story-short, we figured we needed to get to Germany as quick as we could manage. We talked it over with Nightwing, 'cause, ya know, we were gonna have to fly, and the Titans would have to foot the bill 'cause the T-Plane is in a bunch of pieces in the hangar just now 'cause Stone's upgrading something, so we can't use it and would have to go commercial, and Nightwing is Rae's team leader an' shit, so he would have to give us his okey-dokey, but instead he pulled out his communicator and talked to somebody for a bit. Then, about fifteen minutes later, the Watchtower shuttle landed on the roof. He told us it was at our disposal – his words – as long as we needed it. Rae gave him a look, and he shrugged and explained that the JLA was on board with all this stuff now. I'm gonna have to get the back-story on that one, because Rae grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him into one of their conference rooms and I don't know what they talked about but it got kinda loud here and there and lasted for about five minutes. I couldn't hear any details. Anyhow, when Rae came out, she looked satisfied. We took the shuttle. It was, uh, different. Felt like I was on the set of Star Wars. But it got us there in under an hour. We landed in Munich, and started nosing around, and it wasn't long at all before the shit hit the fan, big-time. We headed west, ran into this big stretch of forest and …

Okay, Hon, hang on.

I gotta go. More later.

####

The house was a small affair of locally-cut rock that sat on a gentle rise within an easy walk of the forest. Its first stones had been laid before the Protestant Reformation was even a gleam in Martin Luther's eye, and for the first four hundred years of its existence, its roof consisted of thatch. That meant that it had been built for shorter people, which led to the fact that the working surfaces in the kitchen were quite low. Greta, being rather tall for a young lady, hated working in their kitchen. It left her with an aching back. So, to avoid that problem, she always volunteered to see after the animals, a chore that both her younger sisters despised.

Greta liked it, though. The barn was warm and smelled of hay and horses and cow (they had but one), and usually she could take as long as she liked with the feeding and milking. Of course, Inga and Marissa just hated the farm on general principles. Their father was a rather successful novelist, and could live pretty much anywhere he wanted to. They could not understand why he would choose a _farm_ of all things, why he didn't live any closer to the city than he did. Why, the closest mall was nearly _thirty kilometers_ away! And in this rural district they had to attend school with all these grubby, clueless rustics who knew _not one thing_ about fashion and …

And so on. Greta smiled to herself every time she heard them go off on the subject. _How different_, she thought, _sisters can be!_ Taking after her father, she loved the fresh air and the quiet, the still mornings and the wisps of fog that chased each other about the meadows. Once, last year, he had taken her with him on a quest for truffles in the great, looming forest beyond the edge of their property. The size and age of the ancient oaks and beeches and lindens stole her breath and made her eyes grow round. It was under these sturdy limbs that she would go to study the magic that so fascinated her, for it was in this forest that she discovered the fairy mound.

From childhood tales, through programs on TV and sundry movies, to her very first encounter with a pixie not nine months past, Greta had always held firm to her belief that magic was real, that the modern age had not snuffed it out. Now, having two slim volumes in her possession that her parents would **not** be discovering any time soon, she relished the tiny glimpses of what she had come to believe was possible. She didn't consider herself a witch. That, she knew, was a religion, and she wasn't anyone's idea of a pagan. As a point of pride she pretty much dismissed all religions as irrelevant. But the magic inherent in the Earth, the ley lines flowing constantly, invisibly past and over and through … _those_ she believed in! Those she was learning to feel, to understand, to use. And there were two that crossed right in the middle of the barn.

She sat at the junction, cross-legged on the rough flagstones, letting the faint lines of power flow through her, gathering some of it, tasting it to see what colors ran by today. With a thought she curled some of it around her finger; another nudge of her will caused it to glow. The nearest horse looked over at her and blew once before returning to his sweet feed. She smirked at it, glad that she had the farm to herself today. Their father had relented and taken his two younger daughters into the city for the day. She would be blissfully undisturbed.

_This will work! It has to!_ Today she hoped to take the next step. If successful, she would be able to follow the instructions in her book of magic and coax the ley-force into rigidity, actually making a solid object from pure energy. Concentrating on the light in her hand, she drew it out into a long, thin shape …

####

Raven, noticing the sudden tensing of her lover's shoulders, glanced over at Jinx. "Something wrong?"

"I … don't know." She focused on the Tarot reading, but things quickly became blurry. Irritated, she gathered the cards back up and reshuffled them, then sat still for a minute, focusing on her question. A cut, another, and a third, and she cast the reading again. Her eyebrows went up. "Huh. Looks like we're close."

"Close? To what?"

Giving Raven a one-shoulder shrug, she offered, "The next step?"

"Well there better not be _too_ many more steps. We're running out …"

"… running out of time. Yes. That doesn't shock me, Rae." She studied the layout briefly, nodded to herself, and gathered the cards. "Let's get the car."

"Where to?"

"West."

"Fair enough."

####

The farm Greta's father had bought encompassed some thirty hectares, most of which was pasture … rather unkempt pasture. They only had four animals that relied on it, so it wasn't as if it were an issue, and Greta and her father both liked the semi-wild appearance, so they never had it cultivated. However, an unintended consequence of this state was that someone – or some_thing_ – could approach the buildings through the pasture without any real danger of detection. So the first hint the girl had that everything might not be rosy was when the horses, all at once, began to stamp and rear in their stalls.

####

"Pull over here."

Raven complied, parking their rental car in the small rest area beside the highway. "What's wrong?"

"Something … doesn't feel right." Jinx fidgeted in her seat for a few seconds, and then said, "I'm gonna cast the Bones again." She got out and trotted over to a large, flat rock, eschewing the wooden picnic table that some anonymous benefactor had provided in favor of a better connection to the earth. Raven watched from the driver's seat, knowing that she preferred going through this ritual alone.

A minute later, Jinx ran back to the car, yelling, "Fire it up! We don't have much time!"

Raven was peeling out of the parking area before Jinx's door was shut. The hex-caster pointed ahead. "You'll come to a fork before long. Take the south road." She was rummaging around in her valise.

"Got it."

Not many minutes sped by before they arrived at a stone entryway. "There!" Jinx exclaimed. "That's it! Go there!"

####

Greta regretfully allowed the connection to the ley lines to fade, stood, and walked over to the horses. Their eyes were rolling around, mostly the white showing, and Morgan, her favorite, refused to let her touch him. "What's wrong, boy?" She glanced around nervously, getting a sudden chill. The cow started lowing.

_Something is out there!_

Deciding that being prepared would be a good idea, she fished out the elderwood wand she had made, stepped into a ley line, and began charging it up. Even if the gun laws in Germany hadn't been so strict, her father would never have allowed one in his house, so that wasn't an option. Her magic, though, was something else again. Learning to discharge a flare of eldritch energy had been quickly and easily accomplished, and since that day a few months back she hadn't even left her _room_ without the slim rod secreted somewhere on her person.

Turning around fully, she closed her eyes, trying to get some sort of sense of what was spooking the animals …

####

As soon as the car entered the property, Raven could feel it. "_Shit!_ What's _that?_"

"I don't know. Bad." Jinx had Excalibur across her knees. Both her hands flamed pink, and she was channeling the flux into the sword. She could feel the thing's eager anticipation of battle.

"No duh." Her eyes tracking among the various buildings, Raven asked, "House or barn or …"

"Barn." Jinx pointed. "Punch it."

Their wheels threw gravel as they sped past the small, stone house.

####

Greta's hand tingled where she held the wand. Her mouth dropping open, she could only stare as part of one wall of the barn … _dissolved_ … revealing a creature that not even her worst nightmares could have conjured up. It looked vaguely like pictures she'd seen of a monitor lizard, except it was at least seven meters long, jet black, and deeply wrinkled. And it had wings. And horns. And its eyes glowed a baleful yellow. And twin trails of smoke rose from its nostrils. She took a step back and raised her wand in a trembling fist.

"_**So nice."**_

The voice was low, and thick, and wet … a poisonous ooze that numbed her mind and made her vision go gray. This thing could not be speaking! She shook her head, trying to focus.

"_**So sweet."**_

It advanced slowly … no, it _moved_ slowly. But it was suddenly _much_ closer. Dimly Greta realized that the animals were going nuts, kicking at their stalls and screaming. With a yell, she released her wand charge at the thing, putting everything she had into the blast of bright energy. Its head jerked to the side as a gash appeared along its neck, and it let out a scream that practically tore the hair from her head.

####

Low groans filled the darkened room, offering counterpoint to the occasional rattle or clink of heavy chains. Dorno Velez-al'Aziz paced slowly back and forth in front of his captives, observing almost clinically the efficacy of his latest modification. The chains passed through the body cavity of each young woman, carefully threading back-to-front, under the lungs and between all the vital organs, but intimately in contact with certain nerve bundles. The wounds, sealed so they wouldn't leak blood, nevertheless were just as painful as when they'd first been inflicted. At random intervals an electric charge would run through the chain, causing at least one of the four to spasm and pull on the chain, an agonizing experience for all of them.

Velez-al'Aziz liked electricity. It hadn't been readily available until he was over a hundred years old, and he still thought of it as a novelty.

The first indication he had that anything was amiss was when a hot pain lanced across his neck. Stumbling back in confusion, he put a hand to the spot and rubbed, looking for a wound of some kind, even though he knew it wasn't possible. He couldn't _**be**_ harmed! What was going on?

####

Greta found that she was crouched against the wall. How had she gotten there? Her gaze swung back around to the monster, which was coiled up in the center of the barn; it was glowing a deep blue, shot through with brighter blue sparks that clustered around its head and neck. After a few seconds the glow died and it straightened back out. The gash she had inflicted was gone. In an eyeblink it reared up and suddenly it was _right there!_

"_**Sorceress! Even better! Master will be pleased."**_

Her arms came up in futile defense as it struck …

####

Both car doors stood open as Jinx and Raven piled out and sprinted to the barn. The human yell, and the decidedly _**in**_human screech that followed spurred the pair to greater speed. They pulled up beside the big double-door, Jinx with Excalibur resting against her shoulder, scintillating with pink energy, Raven holding a short, stout object made of ebony that reminded the other girl of a small mace, except that it had a black jewel of some kind in the business end. She hadn't seen it before and had not a clue where it had come from. Nodding to Raven, they opened the door and swung inside.

Jinx's first thought was, _That is the __**ugliest**__ son of a bitch I have __**ever**__ seen!_

Raven's first thought was, _A pseudo-dragon! Oh, __hell__, no!_ Screaming, "Kill it!" she held her short weapon straight out in front of her and loosed a blast of dark energy that looked positively solid. The black spike impacted the thing's front limb as it descended upon a cowering girl, snapping it cleanly in half at the elbow and knocking the monster back a couple of meters.

They thought the scream it had uttered _before_ was loud, but that was only due to insufficient comparison. The deafening bellow it now gave literally knocked shakes loose from the roof. The screaming of the livestock was completely lost in the noise. Both their heads were ringing, and Raven actually went to one knee. Waves of sullen, viscous evil flowed from the hideous thing, nearly making Jinx gag, but she plowed ahead, bringing the legendary sword up, over, and down onto the monster.

Her hex-force-infused weapon impacted just in front of the shoulder and hardly even slowed, cleaving halfway-through the beast. A sharp sizzling sound marked when the sword gave up its load of hex energy. The pseudo-dragon jerked away with a moist, choked cough and curled up in a ball; a wave-front of vivid blue exploded off of it, knocking Jinx back a step. Pink sparks raced over its scales, concentrating on the mortal wound and seeming to sink into the creature. It shuddered once; it uncoiled and thrashed, beating the floor with its tail a few times; livid purple light filled its eyes, which then burst messily; and with a final, throaty rattling, it lay still.

Jinx dropped the sword, slumped to her knees, and fell over sideways.

####

Velez-al'Aziz drew long breaths, trying to make sense of the situation. The pain quickly damped and went away, leaving part of him wondering if he had imagined it, and another part of him fearfully peering around into the corners.

A few moments later, jagged, red-hot teeth sank into his right elbow. The exquisite torture pulled him to the hairy edge of consciousness; he struggled to remain lucid. Then, just as it seemed he was regaining control, a sheet of living lightning tore through his right shoulder. He spiraled swiftly down into the maelstrom of darkness …

####

Something was trying to get her attention. Squeezing her eyes shut, she muttered, "Go 'way."

"Jinx! Honey, are you okay? Can you hear me?"

Oh, yeah. That voice. That was … Raven. She cracked one eye open and quickly shut it again. Half a dozen self-propelled power tools were busily engaged in rearranging the contents of her skull. She made some sort of noise but couldn't be bothered with making it decipherable.

A cool hand met her forehead and gently fizzing energy spread across her face. The grinding, pounding pain subsided; she blinked and sat up. "Wha' hoppen'?"

"You killed it. It tried some kind of spell as it was dying, but I think your hex energy, and the massive wound it took, derailed that effort." Raven offered the girl a hand and helped her get to her feet. She glanced past Jinx, who swiveled to follow her gaze.

The pseudo-dragon was a long pile of blackness on the barn floor; just beyond it, a slight, dark-haired girl crouched against the wall, crying quietly. Jinx stepped over and knelt beside her. "Hey. Are you hurt anywhere?"

A muffled sob was her only answer.

"It's okay now. It's dead."

Bright blue eyes looked up and locked on pink ones. She hiccupped and stated, "Ich sollte … besser gewusst haben."

Jinx quirked a brow and looked back at Raven. "Your department now, Babe."

Raven walked over and sat next to the shaken girl, and they conversed together in German for a few minutes. Finally she nodded and said to Jinx, "She's been practicing magic for about nine months. Apparently she's pretty good, for someone with no actual training."

"Yeah, okay. How's she tie in to our dear friend, Senor Psycho?"

"Not a clue. But this thing," and here she held up the short mace-lookalike, "automatically takes readings from any magical creature or artifact it gets close to, and from what I could detect, I'll bet you a dozen doughnuts that thing there was his familiar."

Jinx was intending to ask about the odd device, but that comment pulled her off on a different tangent. "No shit? Well! Bully for us! If we knocked off his familiar, he won't be up to much. We might've just solved the problem."

"Maybe. Or maybe he'll be so pissed off that he'll move heaven and earth to get back at us."

"Yyyyyeah. There is that."

####

He didn't know how much time had passed. He didn't really know where he was at first. Somehow he'd ended up in his rooms; he lay prone in front of his fireplace (not that he ever used it) with his arms by his sides. His face was attached to the stone floor by a frozen puddle of drool.

Pulling his hands up toward his head, he pushed off the floor and yanked his head loose, ripping the skin of his cheek as he rose. The shock stopped him cold, and he stared stupidly as small drops of blood ran off his chin, making little _plip_ sounds where they hit the icy drool. Slowly he sat up, bringing a hand to his face in disbelief. He looked at the red marks staining his fingers, examining a fluid he hadn't seen in decades. Curiously then, he felt the skin of his arm. It was … soft. That was wrong.

As the initial adrenaline rush wore off, and his face began to hurt in earnest, he realized that the small wound wasn't healing. That sent a chill racing over his whole body. What had happened to his ability to regenerate damage? This was very, very bad! He recalled a simple healing charm that he would occasionally use on his captives, to keep them from dying too soon. He never suspected he would ever need to use it on himself, but it was a simple matter to do so, and his cheek closed up and ceased its throbbing.

####

Jinx caught Raven's gaze. "You ever have a familiar?"

"No. My demonic nature doesn't lend itself to that sort of arrangement with mortal creatures. If I had one, it would need to be a minor imp or mephit, or some other denizen of the lower planes. That means it would be evil in its essential nature, and we'd be arguing about its duties most of the time. I don't need that." She regarded Jinx for a moment. "You've never had one either, have you?"

"Nope. It was my lifestyle that got in the way, being on the move all the time. And really, I don't know what I'd do with it if I had one."

"I figured as much."

"So, okay. Let's say this thing was his familiar. That means he knows it's dead now, right?"

Raven nodded once. "Also, depending on how long they've been together, he may have felt what it was feeling before it died."

"… Shit. Um …"

"Yes. Immediately." Raven moved to the center of the barn and concentrated. Her soul-self manifested, condensed to a swirling sphere, and gradually opened a portal into a dead dimension. Then another piece of the black energy lifted the pseudo-dragon and tossed it through the opening. The portal closed and the blackness sucked back into the demi-demon. Raven pocketed the short device she held and dusted her hands off. "That should do it."

"He can't track it now?"

"Probably not." She shook her head, her lips pulling back in satisfaction. "I'd say definitely not, given that its loss is going to cost him. He probably had several maintenance spells tied to it. That's generally the primary use for a familiar, that and being the wizard's gofer."

"Well what was it doing _here?_ Why was it attacking _her?_"

"Both excellent questions." She shot a look at the girl in question, who was staring at Raven with her mouth hanging open. "I think we should have a good, long chat with her. But it needs to be somewhere else, not this farm, in case another bad-nasty shows up."

####

The next thing Velez-al'Aziz noticed was that his face was bare. Most of his beard was still stuck to the floor, and as he wiped his hand across his brow, it came away covered in long, white hair. Soon he discovered that whatever had happened had made _**all**_ his hair come loose … including his eyebrows, and eyelashes, and nose hair. It was very … disturbing.

At that point it dawned on him that he was completely naked, and that _really_ set off the alarm bells! He never took off his robe for any reason. Ever. He used magic to clean himself, so he didn't need to bathe. Extremes of temperature had no effect on his level of comfort. And the robe protected him from any energy and most magical attack forms. Where was it? Did it get left behind when he … when he …

The thought that he might have teleported skittered like a crazed spider across his mind before he squashed it good and hard. That did _**not**_ happen. It couldn't. He refused to entertain the idea. He must have … been knocked out of the robe. Yes. And then he levitated up to his room. While unconscious. Through several locked doors. Yes, that was it. That _**had**_ to be it!

Robe! His robe … where was it? And where was his primary staff? Back with his robe, near the captives? Being there was the last thing he recalled, just before the pain hit. Curious, he looked down at his shoulder, but there was no scar to mark the passing of the crushing torment he'd felt. Quickly he trotted and jogged and flew down the several levels to the dungeon. Entering his abattoir, he immediately spotted his accoutrements, zipped over, and slipped into his robe. Its frogs had not been unfastened, which he had to do before donning it, and were quite stiff from disuse. There was basically no other way to get it on or off … without teleporting. Again, he stomped that thought firmly on its pointed head.

Once he was fully dressed, in possession of his staff, and feeling slightly more sanguine about his safety, he took notice of his captives. They had been quiet and motionless since his arrival and now he saw that this was due to their being dead. How very annoying! Bending to examine one of them, he saw that the skin was charred around the spot where the chain passed through. "Electrocuted," he muttered to himself. "That is inconvenient. Must have overloaded when I … um …" Quickly quashing and redirecting that train of thought, he turned to the new task of re-acquiring the necessary virgins. And he didn't have much time. _Irving should be returning soon with what would have been the fifth. I wonder if he could collect a few more before … before …_

And that's when it hit him. The overall sense of unease, the feeling of being off-balance, the difficulty he was having keeping his thoughts lined up, all was due to a suddenly chilling lack: he couldn't feel his familiar. He couldn't detect Irving's mind at all.

But that … that was _impossible!_ No matter how far away the pseudo-dragon was, he should be able … no physical barrier could possibly … the spirit connection was so complete that …

No. It just … could … not … be.

He sprinted and flew and crawled back up to his study, went to one wall and jerked aside a curtain hanging there. Revealed was a huge mirror, taller than he was and half-again as wide, set in a massive frame carved from a single chunk of hematite. The frame was crowded with arcane symbols that glowed a faint green; and as long as they continued to glow that way, the extra-planar being that powered the mirror would stay trapped inside. Holding a hand out toward it, Dorno spoke five words in a long-dead tongue. His fingertips turned black; wisps of smoke began trailing up from them; the surface of the mirror rippled and the faintest suggestion of a scream echoed briefly through the room.

"Show me."

The ripples increased in frequency for several seconds before the surface smoothed out. A whisper, the mere husk of a voice, asked, "Whom do you seek?"

"Irving." The tips of his fingers shivered to ash and fell to the floor.

The mirror went dark. For several minutes shadows and scattered bright specks flickered across its face. Finally blobs of light began to coalesce into the semblance of a pastoral scene. When the view settled, Dorno was looking at an old stone barn.

The voice spoke. "Ask your questions."

"Is Irving alive?" His forefinger shriveled, decayed, and dropped off. From his face, no one would have been able to read how much pain he was in.

The answer was long in coming, but finally the voice cracked out, "No."

A long breath and a narrowing of his eyes were the only signs of the emotional agony he felt at hearing that syllable. He held his peace for the space of several heartbeats, but then he asked, "Show me how he died." A second and then a third finger followed the first into oblivion.

The barn swooped in closer. The perspective passed through the double doors. Irving lay on the floor; his shoulder just behind the neck was cut deeply, the gash reaching well into his body cavity. Over him stood a woman, a young woman with voluptuous curves and purple hair, and she held … no! … could it be?

Velez-al'Aziz squinted to see. Was that a _Spirit Wrack?_ He'd thought them all destroyed!

He turned his attention to the woman, willed the point of view to turn around so that her face was shown. Yes, he would memorize this face. He could ask no more questions of the mirror until a fortnight had passed, for the next question would cost him his hand, and _that_ would take too long to heal. He had to perform the summoning, and for that he would need both hands.

Speaking the five ancient words again, but in reverse order, he shut the magic connection. The mirror went dark. Staring at his hand morosely, he contemplated his options while he healed the damage to his fingers.

Obviously he needed more virgins. He didn't know if the sorceress who had slain his familiar _**was**_ a virgin, but he was very sure of one thing: she would have a place of honor in the summoning. Her flesh would be the first to feed Lord Neron when he appeared. Taking a stance in the center of his study, he summoned to himself eldritch fire; with it he drew a circle on the dark stone, established the Five Points, and spoke his curse, enchanting each one in turn:

"This I swear!  
In the power of the Lower Congress, I swear.  
By the Geas of the Grave, I swear.  
Through Agency of Mind and Might, I swear.  
With Potency of Fear and Flame, I swear.  
On the Gods of All-Consuming Darkness, I swear.  
She will pay for this affront with her soul."

The circle and the Points flamed high, higher, and then winked out. Dorno Velez-al'Aziz turned and stalked out of the room, his face a study in determined revenge.

####

. . .

. . .

. . .

**Author's Notes:  
****So, what do you think of Raven's prognostication ability? She was sure he wouldn't be able to track them. How do you think that might weigh in later? And what are his chances of being able to pull off that curse? All these and more to be explored Next Time. Happy reading!**

**. . .**

**Ah, responses to sweet, sweet reviews! I love my reviewers. You guys are the best.**

**- Desuka Kira: Thanks for the insight! You raise a valid question. Here is my take on it, from two angles. FIRST - In the comic, Trigon had the nasty habit of killing off his family members. The only reason Neron is still around is that he escaped his uncle's notice. You might say they weren't close. SECOND - As do most inhabitants of the Lower Planes, Neron operates on a need-to-know basis with his minions. It's doubtful that he considers Raven's existence significant enough to share with Dorno. Even if he did know that Trigon had sired a half-breed (which he may or may not) he would dismiss said offspring as irrelevant. At least that's my take on it. Your Mileage May Vary.**

**- Spikesagitta: Ah, not Jinx, but Raven. The sorceress he saw in the mirror had purple hair and held a Spirit Wrack. That's Raven. Jinx is currently blond and was holding Excalibur. The mirror did not display or mention Jinx at all. Very odd, don't you think? -)**


	7. Chapter 7 Disaster

**ENEMY OF MY ENEMY**

_[Disclaimer: The Titans, as has been established elsewhere QUITE firmly, are the property of DC Comics. My contribution here is limited to the details in this story, with which content the DC oligarchs deny all connection. Which is as it should be, I suppose.]_

. . .

**[Author's Note: And thus does the excrement impact the impeller. Please don't shoot the messenger. I just type what they give me.]**

_. . ._

_. . ._

_. . ._

_**Chapter Seven – Disaster**_

Okay. So it turns out Raven has a few secrets, too. I can deal. Can't really blame her for this one, though, since it saved our bacon. She explained about that black weapon thingy, once we got the girl away – oh, her name's Greta … Greta Stein, and she's a real sweetie – got her away from the farm and stowed with us in our hotel. When she understood what we were doin' and what that thing was that attacked her and what was really at stake, she totally freaked. We had to let her call her father and warn him about going back out to the farm, so now the rest of her family is staying in Munich tonight, too.

Yeah, the weapon. It's basically a funky piece of arcane jewelry that a demon might wear. She says it comes from the lower planes, and that part of it still exists there. Yeah, she got all metaphysical on me. Anyhow, it's sort of like a combination lens and nuclear reactor. It takes a demon's power and focuses it, but it adds to it at the same time. Depending on … eh, depending on things that depend, whoever is using it can amplify his power several times over. Raven says you have to be a demon, or at least have demonic blood, to be able to control it. If a mortal tries to use it, there's a, ah … well, I guess you'd say _**it**_ uses _**him**_ instead. Uses him up. It doesn't go well.

So anyhow, it's called a Spirit Wrack, and they're damned rare. She doesn't know of any others, and she's had this one since her ol' man showed up and tried to kill her. This was one of the things that got left behind when she kicked his ass for him. Don't know why he had it, and don't know why he didn't use it. She said maybe he was already so powerful it wouldn't have made any difference. Beats me. But she started playing around with it a couple months ago and figured out how to call it to her using her soul-self. This was the first time she ever found a need for it since learning that much about it.

I reckon she'll be using it against that sorcerer freak. We're on our way to his place right now, and Raven's pretty sure he doesn't know we're coming. I'm not nearly as confident as she is, though. I've been studying this guy for a long time. He's smarter than you might think. Off his chum, yeah … but smart.

See, after getting Greta's family back together and on their way to a relative's place in Austria, me an' Raven did another meditation-vision thingy, and got some real clues about our Worthy Adversary. And, yeah, he's still mighty freakin' _worthy_, power-wise. Anyway, I took what info we got with her clairvoyance and did a few Tarot layouts. Everything pointed south. _Way_ south. Then I cast the Bones, and they said, plain as the hair on my head, that he was in Antarctica. We aren't too far away now.

I quizzed Raven on that, 'cause I knew Antarctica was a big place. I mean, y'know, it's a continent and shit, and covered in ice, and if he's dug down deep, how are we s'posed to find him? But it turns out the Watchtower's shuttle has some totally mad electronic surveillance equipment. She showed me how to use the stuff, and we can track what's goin' on under the ice. If there's some kind of base or headquarters or super-secret evil lair, we'll find it.

I'm just not positive that this is the best way to go about it.

But it ain't like we have a whole hell of a lot of choice. New moon's tonight. It'll be setting before many more hours are gone. Then all Hell will break loose if we aren't there to stop it. Literally.

We're over the Straits of Magellan now. Raven wants me on a detector. If we live through this, I'll do another post and get you caught up. If not … well, there won't be anybody left to listen to it, so I guess it don't matter, do it?

Later. I hope.

####

Zatanna didn't bother knocking. She knew what she'd find behind the door.

Dr. Fate was in the lotus position, floating about a meter above the center of a black silk floor cloth. He didn't acknowledge her presence, although she knew good and damn well he could sense her. He could have sensed her in Africa. Possibly on Mars.

"What I want to know," she began without preamble, "is why you are having such a bitch of a time locating one, single, bat-shit-crazy sorcerer."

He said nothing at first. Then, after a quarter-minute, he floated gently to the floor, unfolded his legs, and stood. Removing his helm, he held her blue eyes with his brown ones. Brown today, at any rate. "A sorcerer who doesn't wish to be found is a problematic thing. You know this as well as I."

"You're supposed to be the best."

He continued as if she hadn't spoken. "Add to that the fact that he is, as you so colorfully put it, bat-shit crazy, and you have a combination that can avoid detection almost at will. I have been forced into a process of elimination."

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning that I have been looking for all the places he _isn't_."

That gave her pause. "… Okay. That does sound … somewhat tricky."

"Thank you. I am warmed by your support." He didn't bother to try to minimize the layer of sarcasm dripping from his words.

Ignoring his jibe, she walked over to the view-screen. "Where is Jinx?"

"They just passed Tierra del Fuego."

That pulled a frown out of her. "What?"

"She and Raven are on their way to Antarctica to track down the sorcerer and kill him before he can complete the ritual."

Turning, she stared at him. "Antarctica?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"That is where her scrying led them."

"_Her _scrying? Wait just a damn minute! How is it that _she_ can get a bead on this kook, but _you_ can't?"

"An excellent question, and one that has occupied a large portion of my attention since I became aware of the situation."

"How's she doing it?"

"The Tarot. And Rune-Casting."

Slowly, her eyebrows went up until they met her hairline. "Ex_**cuse**_ me?"

He only nodded.

"She's using _parlor tricks_ to find him, when the greatest mage in this sector of the galaxy _can't?"_

"As I believe I mentioned, I have been studying this anomaly with some fervor."

"Hmh." That floored her just a bit. "That's just about the craziest thing I've heard in the last decade."

"Which says a great deal, coming from you."

She snorted at that. "Don't I know it." Pausing in thought for a few seconds, she then snapped her fingers. "Hey. Her power is bad luck, right?"

"It is more complex than that, but you are essentially correct. She can alter probability in her general location, typically by causing things to break or slip or wear out or otherwise fail in such a manner as to create for her an advantage."

"It's not _**all**_ magic, though, is it?"

"No. She is a meta-human. She bolsters her ability through magic on occasion, but the power itself is innate to her. Her body creates the probability-altering field without any outside help. In fact, she must bleed off the excess periodically to avoid causing accidents to those around her."

"Ah-huh. Well run this by your scanner: maybe she isn't just bad luck for others. Maybe she's good luck for herself."

"That possibility had crossed my mind. It would explain much. But it doesn't really help us in this scenario."

"Guess not." Returning to the screen, she adjusted the view until the southern tip of South America came into focus. "Do _**you**_ think he's in Antarctica?"

"I have no good reason to believe otherwise. Yet I still cannot detect him, even after they killed his familiar."

She tapped her chin with a neatly manicured finger. "That will _have_ to work in their favor."

"Possibly. Or, as Raven expressed it, the loss might fuel his anger toward them, making him only that much more dangerous. In any case, the balance has changed." He put his helm back on and assumed his meditative position again. "Have the rest of the strike force stand ready."

He got a quick nod from the witch as she strode out, the door hissing silently shut behind her.

####

Five girls, ranging in age from fourteen to seventeen, lay staked out on the frigid stone, bronze spikes through their forearms and lower legs ensuring they weren't going anywhere. Each one occupied one point of a pentagram some fifteen meters across. Velez-al'Aziz had flown over to Argentina, snatched the teenagers at random from various towns, and zipped back to his lair before anyone knew what had happened. All the girls were fully conscious, in hideous pain, and terrified beyond their comprehension. But the mad sorcerer wasn't in the mood to listen to screaming and wailing and gnashing of teeth just now, so he had invoked a spell of silence; the girls could hear each other, but their voices traveled no farther than the magical bubble around the giant rune.

No, Dorno was preoccupied with memorizing the final components of the spell he intended to use, and arranging the physical items in the correct order. A dimensional breach of this nature was a delicate thing to construct, and one wrong step meant disaster. He had no desire to be consumed by a mistake.

So it was with a combination of glee and disgust that he noted the approach of the one who had slain his only friend in this world. The summoning was not quite ready. He had perhaps another half hour of preparation, and then over an hour of actually performing the rite before the portal to the Lower Planes would be ready. He could ill afford to take a break. But, since the murderer had so obligingly transported herself to him, he could hardly pass up this opportunity.

He only had to pause a few seconds to make up his mind on this. He had time …

####

"They do not," observed the Martian Manhunter, "seem to know precisely what it is they are seeking."

The Flash agreed. "Yeah. No pattern or anything."

Five of the most powerful members of the Justice League floated around the small room, waiting for the right moment to enact their _deus ex machina_. The JLA shuttle and Raven's rental car were both thoroughly bugged. They had been watching and listening to the two girls at every opportunity; that led to this remote post getting set up in a big hurry as soon as they found out where the pair was going. They placed it over Antarctica, at the edge of space, but not too far from the south magnetic pole.

Firestorm nodded toward where Zatanna was folded up in the lotus position, apparently in some kind of trance, and asked Green Lantern, "What's with her?"

"She's in contact with Dr. Fate." Hal Jordan turned his head to give the nuclear man a narrow look. "Weren't you paying attention in the briefing?"

"Yeah, yeah, sorry. I just assumed she'd be using a radio. My bad."

"Her way is more secure."

"Even from a sorcerer?"

"She seems to think so. So does Dr. Fate."

Firestorm gave his mouth a 'good enough for me' twist and turned his attention to the monitor. J'onn J'onzz ran his fingers over the controls, splitting the view so that the right half of the big screen showed the shuttle's cockpit. Firestorm frowned. "Does Jinx even _know_ how to work that equipment?"

"Apparently," answered Green Lantern. "The longer I delve into that odd girl's life, the more she surprises me. Were you aware that she speaks nine languages?"

"Nine?"

"Yeah. Besides English, she knows Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, and Farsi."

"That's … an odd assortment."

"You're telling me. She also single-handedly fought off a large band of pirates that attacked a cruise ship in the Indian Ocean last year."

"… cruise ship … wait, that _Princess of Ceylon_ incident?"

"Yes."

"That's the ship that was found by a naval vessel the next day?"

"Yes. _Those_ pirates. Trussed up on deck like a bunch of roasting hens."

"Girl has a weird sense of humor."

Hal Jordan barked a short laugh. J'onn stated, "While the sailors who found them would agree, I doubt the pirates would share that sentiment."

Firestorm detected something on-screen in his peripheral vision and whipped his head around. That was shortly followed by shrill whistle. "Hot damn!"

J'onn moved immediately to blank the screen showing the shuttle's cockpit.

"Aw, man! What'd you do that for?"

The Martian gave him a disapproving scowl. "The shuttle is under surveillance for the preservation of the planet, not for your own perverted, voyeuristic indulgence."

"Party pooper."

####

It was very comfortable on Jinx's lap, but after a couple of minutes, Raven pulled away from her girlfriend to give them both a chance to breathe. "Not," she said, panting a little, "that I'm complaining … but what's that for?"

"I don't want you to forget me."

The purple-eyed beauty gave Jinx an incredulous look. "_Forget_ you? After all the trouble we went through to _remember_ you? Not likely." She ran her fingernails lightly through the downy, blond hair, drawing a low purr from the object of her affections. "What could ever give you that idea?"

Jinx pulled her in close, parking the dark head under her chin. "We're going in to face one of the more dangerous men on the planet. If … if something happens to me …"

Raven sat up and faced the girl, their noses just centimeters apart. "None of that talk. We have a job to do. We go in, we kick ass, we win, we go home, and we make love all night to celebrate. Understand?"

It was simply impossible to contradict her when Raven took that tone, and Jinx didn't try. She offered a sheepish grin. "Yes, ma'am."

"Damn right." And they passed another minute or so in a most pleasant diversion. Then one of the electronic sensors beeped, and Raven leaped up to check it.

"What is it?"

"Heat signature. Low, but it's there." She tapped in several commands and nodded to herself. "Yeah. Seems about right. Take us around starboard about … fifteen degrees."

"Aye-aye, Cap'n."

The shuttle described a wide arc, coming in line with a group of mountains. Jinx pulled up the shuttle's map system and studied it for several seconds. "Oooookay … looks like … yeah, looks like we're headed for a big chunk of rock the map calls … Marujupu Peak."

"That sounds like a Tagalog word."

"Heh. According to the notes, it's a made up name. Some explorer named it after the kids of one of the expedition's patrons."

Raven shrugged. "Whatever. Looks like that's where the signal's coming from."

####

At the same instant Raven and Jinx became aware of the heat signature, the five watchers high above them got the signal as well. Hal Jordan extended his Ring-enhanced will to the walls of their craft and sent it down, following the shuttle. Zatanna kept Dr. Fate apprised of their activities; even with a target, though, he was unable to detect any trace of the sorcerer … until …

####

Jinx had her valise open and was sitting against the back wall rummaging through it while Raven occupied the pilot's chair. So she wasn't looking when the apparition appeared between them.

Raven felt the evil presence and whipped around, but she was much too late. Even as radiating, black energy suffused her hands, she was engulfed in a noxious red light. Blinded, her air cut off, she struggled just to maintain consciousness.

**You thought to wound me by killing my familiar, and you did. But it will not help you.**

At the sound of his voice, Jinx started violently, leaped to her feet, grabbed Excalibur, and jumped to the attack.

**You will make a fine meal for Lord Neron.**

As Jinx swung the sword, just as the wicked tip was approaching the sorcerer's neck, he and Raven vanished. She completed the arc of her swing, turning fully around and keeping her balance by the narrowest of margins. But she had no more jerked her head around to try to figure out where the two went, when massive showers of sparks erupted from every last control panel on the shuttle. Abruptly, it lost altitude. Jinx could feel it relaxing in the inexorable grip of gravity. She ran to the pilot's seat, tried to regain control … but there was nothing left to regain. Everything was dead.

_Including me if I can't think of something, and __fast__!_

The pink energy filled her hands, ran up her arms, and then down into the control bank …

####

Zatanna yelled, "What happened?"

"All I got was an audio," J'onn groused. "My guess is that the sorcerer knew they were coming and intercepted them."

"Intercepted?"

"The sounds we picked up would indicate that he appeared on the shuttle and took Raven."

"Not Jinx?"

"Apparently not."

"Why aren't we getting anything now?"

"According to the readouts … no! This is very bad: all the controls are dead. The shuttle is in free-fall!"

The witch looked over at Green Lantern who nodded and said, "I'm on it."

Their small vessel changed course very slightly and streaked down toward the stricken shuttle.

J'onn frowned at the readings. "It is slowing down."

"What is?"

"The shuttle. It is still dropping, but at only about twenty meters per second now. … Ah … make that sixteen … no … fifteen …"

"Is it back on line?"

"No. Electronically, it is dead."

"Then how is it doing that?"

"… Perhaps … Jinx?"

"Jinx can't fly!"

"True enough. But she can alter reality to some degree." He pointed at the screen. "We are very close now. Hal, can you …"

"Got it. No problem. Let's set down here. It looks pretty level."

The two craft, nearly touching, settled to rest on the hard Antarctic ice near the Ford Range. No sooner had they stopped rocking than Jinx was out of the shuttle and banging on their hatch. Firestorm let her in.

She rubbed her arms a bit, muttering, "Dam_**nation**_, that's cold!" and then looked around at the assembly and nodded, her mouth in a grim line. Her gaze coming to rest on Hal Jordan, she said, "Not that I didn't expect somethin' like this. Thanks for the save, by the way."

Green Lantern waved it off. "Comes with the territory."

"We gotta go after Raven. Bastard took her."

J'onn nodded. "I had assumed as much."

"Were you guys listening in the whole time?"

The Flash gave her a one-shouldered shrug. "Pretty much. When the fate of the world's at stake …"

"Yeah, yeah." She waved a hand at him a few times. "I get it. The greater good an' all that shit. I know the 'why'. I just don't like it much. Feels like an insult." She jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "He's that way. Let's go."

"How do you know?" This from Zatanna.

"Been gettin' better at readin' the Bones. They're talkin' to me pretty clear these days."

"… Bones?"

"Old set of runes. Long story." She fidgeted. "Can we, like, go now? Burnin' daylight and all that."

"Immediately." J'onn fired up the drive and they lifted slowly into the air, tilted, and flew toward the chunk of rock in question.

####

Chains wrapped her. Great, massive chains weighed her down, pressed her against the floor … the hard, rough, gelid floor. The red mist still sheathed her head, effectively blinding her and making thought sluggish. Every time she tried to move, even the smallest twitch, an electric shock ran through the chains. Already there were numerous burns on her body from that source.

… _should have known …_

… _should have been ready …_

… _should have landed sooner …_

… _where is Jinx? …_

… _Jinx …_

… _Jinx … help …_

… _help me …_

####

The hex caster sat, staring forward, taut as a bowstring.

"Which direction?"

"… Down there."

"Where? I do not …"

"Straight down! Stop! Right here! Go straight down and land … there, by that overhang-looking thing."

J'onn skillfully guided the craft to a gentle landing. The Flash and Jinx finished getting into the hot-suits (the others, for various reasons, didn't require them) and then Green Lantern caught them all in a force bubble. "Where to now?"

Jinx closed her eyes and … _listened_. Zatanna did likewise. She was extremely sensitive to the presence of magical forces, and if they were this close to the sorcerer and Jinx, a mere novice, could get a whiff, then certainly _she_ should be able to. She let her spirit nose about, looking for …

Jinx pointed. "That way. There should be a door."

Zatanna turned to look at her, eyes narrowing. "How do you know that?"

Her pupils nearly round in the low light, Jinx's gaze never wavered. "I can feel him."

"_How?"_

The witch's tone got Jinx's attention, and she met the suspicious stare. "What do you mean? Can't you?"

"No!"

"But … but you're a _waaay_ better mage than I am!"

"My point exactly. How do you know where he is? How have you been able to use Rune-stones and Tarot cards to locate someone that even Dr. Fate can't detect?"

She had to stop and think about that for a moment. _Dr. Fate_ didn't know where Dorno was? It hadn't occurred to her that other major magic-wielding figures might not be able to do what she did. She'd just thought they were … well … she hadn't really given it much thought … finding this prick had occupied so much of her attention for so long … she just assumed … wait, what _did_ she assume?

"Well?"

Giving her head a shake, Jinx came back to earth. "Okay, we don't have a whole lot of time, but let me run this by you. I was inside one of his caches when he put a shitload of major warding spells on it. As far as the wards were concerned, I was just another artifact, which is how I was able to nick his stuff and scram. But maybe it was more than that. Maybe the wards … give me some kind of link to him? Maybe? And then, add that to my hex power, and my strong desire to find him, and … well … you know?" A light went on behind her eyes. "Hey! Maybe that's why he just took Rae and left me behind! And he said … what was it he said? Something about killing his familiar, I think. Yeah! But _she_ didn't kill it! _**I**_ did!"

"And you say he ignored you?"

"It was like I wasn't even there."

"That could be quite an asset, once we get inside."

Jinx hefted Excalibur. "Oh, _**hell**_, yeah!"

Zatanna nodded her head in satisfaction, raised a hand, and intoned, "Ew era elbatcetednu!"

Instantly, to each other, their outlines became a bit hazy, and Jinx gasped.

Zatanna patted her back. "Don't fret. Now he won't know _we're_ here, either."

Her mouth in an "O" of realization, Jinx then led the way in under the rocky cliff.

####

She could hear well enough, but what she was hearing made little sense. She could make out the sobbing and screaming of the girls he was using in the summoning spell. They, she knew, would die as soon as it was cast. Their life energies would power the portal.

She had not moved a muscle for the last several minutes and had, therefore, received no shocks. This allowed her to concentrate on countering the effects of the red mist. She had finally recognized the spell, a potent magic that drew on her own soul for its power. To cut off its supply, she would have to shield her soul-self. To this she turned her considerable skill.

In the background, Dorno Velez-al'Aziz was intoning a lengthy series of syllables in a long-dead tongue. Raven knew she didn't have much time.

####

The corridor was long and narrow, but quite tall, maybe three times the height of a man. The six figures hurried down its length single-file. Jinx muttered, "Not much farther."

They came to an abrupt right turn, and suddenly the floor was missing. Peering around the corner, Green Lantern said, "It goes straight for about six or seven meters, then hangs a sharp left."

"Is the floor gone the whole way?" Zatanna wanted to know.

"Yeah. But I think I can see it again after the next turn."

"Let me past."

They jockeyed by each other and Zatanna studied the situation. "It's a trap. I can feel a … trigger. I believe it's an anti-magic field."

The others looked dubious. "How are _you_ gonna get across? Or Jinx, for that matter?"

"No, it's just a trap for active magic. Short-circuits spells. It will probably do away with my 'undetectable' spell. And, more than likely, alert the Big Boss that somebody's coming." She looked thoughtful for a few moments while the others fidgeted. "Okay, here's what we do. I can only feel one trigger. That doesn't mean there isn't a back-up trap, but I think it's just a mage-killer."

The Flash asked, "How so?"

She gave him a look. "A sorcerer comes to this edge, enables flight, and starts across. The trap springs and wipes out his flight spell. It's a hundred-odd meters to the bottom. Do the math."

"Oh."

"So here's what we do. I'll cancel my spell. Then GL will carry us all across. His Ring doesn't use magic." She glanced at Jinx. "I'm hoping that since the wards on you are his doing, that his trap won't see them as hostile magic. If it does … eh, we'll be in the thick of things soon enough anyway."

This plan was carried out with all due haste. As Zatanna had hoped, the trap didn't spring, they made it to the other side, and carried on. But not far down that passage, she stopped and said, "We're being watched."

Firestorm glanced around. "By what?"

"A spell. Come on." They all broke into a run.

####

Raven could see again. Not that this was necessarily comforting, since what she saw was the rapidly-approaching doom of the planet.

Velez-al'Aziz was bathed in shimmering red light, shot through with black streaks and the occasional bright blue spark. His voice had become a stentorian roar, shaking the very rock of his lair. Around the nearest girl a queasy nimbus pulsed, distorting light – or possibly reality – and making objects beyond her dance.

Fighting off the last dregs of the evil magic that had bound her, Raven turned her attention to her chains. She exuded a thin tendril of soul-self, testing the metal, and found it inhabited only by the electricity spell. This she quickly disabled. Once again free to move, she phased through the massive links and floated just above them, trying to keep a low profile. The sorcerer was not facing her straight on, but she would definitely be in his peripheral vision. She cloaked her naked self in a layer of soothing blackness, both to help her hide and to protect her from the sub-zero chill that permeated the entire base.

The sorcerer appeared to be extremely preoccupied with his summoning. She was contemplating whether to phase down through the rocky floor and then come up somewhere else, or simply try a teleport, when a loud _BANG_ sounded off to her left. Her head jerked around as a pitched battle rolled into the room.

####

The party of invaders ran into their first real opposition not too far from their goal (not that they really knew how far they _had_ left to go) in the form of …

"A rock golem! Shit!" Zatanna yelled. She evaded the thing's first swing and shot upward, trying to stay out of its reach. "Jason! Try turning it into something else!"

The Nuclear Man zipped in close, flew around behind it, and ran a hand down its back. It shuddered, then stiffened, then collapsed in a huge splash of water.

They re-grouped (the hallway had gotten considerably wider) and ran on. But at the next turn in the passage they were met by a sparkling blue cloud. This they quickly determined was made up of several thousand … well … for want of a better term, pixies. Each tiny being was just over two centimeters long, and armed with even tinier knives. Green Lantern threw up a wall for protection as they rushed to attack, and they struck and struck at the clear, green projection. He looked over at Zatanna. "Any ideas?"

"Can you get another wall on their other side?"

"Sure." And he did.

"Great. Now, squash 'em."

"Serious?"

"They're nothing but magical constructs. I don't even know if crushing them will deactivate them. But try it."

He did. And it didn't. "Well, hell."

Zatanna took off her hat. "Okay, let's do this: change the shape of your containment field to a long, narrow cylinder. Then let me put my hat over one end."

He did, and she did. "Great. Now open this end."

Jinx was watching all this avidly. She'd never been around such a high concentration of magic before, and the effect was heady.

Zatanna muttered something in that Backward Speech thing she did and the pixies were all sucked out of the cylinder and into the hat. She grinned and placed it back on her head. "I can think of a few good uses for those little buggers."

But these defenses were just the warm-up. They came to a large, ornate door that blocked off the hall. Zatanna held them back. "That thing's got more nasty crap on it than a New Delhi landfill." She surveyed the surrounding rock and nodded. "I think the easiest thing to do will be to tunnel around it."

J'onn was incredulous. "That is the _easy_ way?"

"I didn't say that. I said 'easier'. As in 'possible', as opposed to getting through this door in one piece. I hope." Gesturing to Firestorm, she said, "Jason, see if you can turn the rock into air.

He did, without any trouble. The witch grinned. "Great! Let's go."

But when they emerged from the wall on the other side of the door and looked down the corridor, they pulled up short. Standing some eight or ten meters away was a very large suit of armor, holding a two-meter-long sword, point against the floor. The whole thing was highly polished … and bright yellow. Firestorm smirked at Green Lantern. "Looks like he saw _you_ coming."

Flash said, "I'll go take a look around it. Maybe I can disassemble it." And he vanished. A bare instant later the suit of armor was in a different position, and Flash was crumpled at the base of the wall, bleeding profusely. He held his arms over his mid-section, eyes wide and pained. "How …" he whispered. "How …"

Zatanna flew to him and knelt, drawing a hiss of breath as she surveyed the damage. He'd nearly been disemboweled. She placed her hands on his abdomen and started healing him.

The armor returned to its original position and a _basso profundo_ voice rumbled, "None shall pass."

Jinx and Firestorm looked at each other. He shook his head and said, "Oh, that's not right!"

"Amen." She studied the thing, then let her hands fill with pink energy.

He said, "What are you doing?"

"Maybe I can give us an edge. It hasn't attacked or moved from its spot, so maybe it really is just there to keep everybody out." The pink glow moved up her arms and got brighter. "It's at least partly mechanical. And my hexes are gnarly death to mechanical systems."

"Yeah, if you can hit it."

"I've got an angle on that."

Zatanna came back over to them, leading the Flash, who looked like something the cat dragged in. "He'll need time to recover, even with his metabolism." She spotted Jinx and said, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Wait and see."

"Oh, no! Right now it's likely that he doesn't know you're here, even if he _does_ know the rest of us are. We can't compromise that advantage."

"You have a plan for getting by the Yellow Knight, there?"

"… um …"

"Well I do." Her hex energy was making her almost too bright to look at. "And if we can't get past it, then nothing else really matters, right?"

"… Yeah, okay. What's the move?"

"Can you tell how much of that thing is magic and how much is mechanism?"

"I'd say about fifty-fifty."

"If I take out the moving parts, can you handle the rest?"

The older magic-user stared keenly at their opponent for several seconds and nodded. "Give me about fifteen seconds, and then let loose." She raised a hand and began talking under her breath.

"Got it." Jinx knelt and placed her fingertips on the rock, watching the robotic obstacle the while. A quarter-minute later she drew a quick breath, closed her eyes, and … blasted.

The knight was engulfed in a pink light show that sprang from beneath it. It didn't sense the approach of an enemy, so it didn't try to move … and then it _couldn't_ move. The sword clattered to the floor and the armor's joints started spitting sparks. Then Zatanna's spells hit it, and it practically dissolved, little bits of metal and plastic flying in all directions.

Zatanna looked over at Jinx and grinned. "Teamwork counts, I'd say."

"Yep. Let's boogie."

The final guardians turned out to be a trio of Hell Hounds, their hazy outlines detaching themselves from the walls and dropping down to confront the five heroes. Hal tried to encase one in a force shell, but it simply passed through and came at them, its partners at its heels. He dodged and yelled, "How do we fight these things!"

"You let me and Jinx do it, that's how!" She flew up to the ceiling and started muttering. Jinx yanked out Excalibur and gave the blade a quick kiss. It nearly shivered in anticipation.

The lead Hound made a quick turn and went for Green Lantern again, but the magical blade met it instead, hitting it right on the snout and slicing the demonic thing cleanly in half. It gave a tremendous report and dissipated. Then they ran out the door and into an enormous chamber.

####

Raven watched as four members of the JLA zipped into the room … followed by Jinx! The slight girl was waving her sword around, trying to hit some hazy patch of darkness that looked like …

_Shit! Hell Hounds!_ Raven flew to her aid, her soul-self unwinding.

Firestorm and J'onn J'onzz went straight for the sorcerer, but almost instantly ran into an invisible barrier. Green Lantern landed beside them and added his abilities to the task, but nothing they did seemed to make a dent. Jason started digging straight down, thinking he might be able to tunnel up inside the force dome.

The sorcerer paid them not the slightest attention. By this time, the entire chamber was lit with the sinister glow he was emitting. The five girls were screaming constantly, and Velez-al'Aziz's booming voice overshadowed everything.

Raven struck at a Hell Hound with a tendril of soul-self, gaining its attention and distracting it from its attack on Jinx, who promptly sliced off its head in repayment. At almost the same instant, Zatanna succeeded in overcoming the defenses of the one she fought. The twin explosions were nearly lost in the cacophony.

Jinx dropped her sword and caught Raven in a fierce hug, nearly crying. "Thought … were gone … thought … lost you …"

"No, Sweetie, I'm fine." She held her away slightly and said, "Let's go kill us a madman."

Jinx nodded, giving her lover a watery smile. She picked up Excalibur, and they sprinted over to the rest of the group. But Jinx skidded to a stop and pulled out her valise, quickly unfolding it and rummaging around in it.

"What are you doing?"

"Calling the cavalry!" She held up the dragonstone. "I'd say we could use some help, now that we're here."

Raven, eyeing the sorcerer, agreed. "Go for it."

Jinx fixed her stare on the gem and said, "All right, Set, time to get down, get funky."

"That has to be the weirdest summons I ever heard."

"Well how would you do it?"

Raven held out her hand and Jinx deposited the gem in the slim palm. Raven said, "Let me see the sword." As soon as she had it, she pressed the gem against the pommel and squeezed. It shattered, the tiny pieces turning to smoke. Then, simultaneously, an ominous rumble shuddered through the floor, and with a brilliant white flash, Set appeared in front of them.

He took the situation in at a glance and shook his head. "You should have called sooner." In an eye-twisting moment he was gone, and an enormous, gray-scaled dragon filled the hall. With a gesture, he swept the group of heroes away, then turned his head toward the force dome and let loose with a vicious gout of purple flame from his mouth.

The lambent energy licked at the dome, caressed it … then crushed it. A shrill cry replaced the sorcerer's formerly resounding voice. He stared up as the gigantic talons came down on him. There was a wet smack, and Dorno Velez al'Aziz departed this plane of existence.

But the shaking in the earth didn't abate. Set looked down at the dead girls and blew a long, frustrated breath. "Yes. You should have called me sooner." He backed up, then converted to his 'human' appearance. "I fear we are too late."

The rock in the center of the mystic circle bubbled and flowed, then seemed to part, opening like the iris of a camera. A low laugh sounded through the hall, setting everyone's teeth on edge, and four glowing red eyes appeared in the air above the growing pool of magma …

. . .

. . .

. . .

**[Author's End Notes: Yes, I know. That's kind of a bad place to leave things. But there isn't a better one between here and the Epilogue, so it'll have to do. Sorry. Feel free to comment if you think I have stepped over the line.]**

**. . .**

**. . .**

**[Author's FURTHER End Notes: Replies to my reviewers! You guys are The Best!**

**Shadowruni: Don't worry! I will finish it. Chill. Here, have a melatonin tablet.**

**100 Silver Wings: Love ya, girl! Thanks! Actually, things are 'speeding up' on purpose. It's pretty much all action here on out until we hit the Epilogue. Also, I will not apologize for the cliffhanger. I'm working on Chapter 8 now, so hopefully your fingers won't give out and you won't fall before it gets published. Yes, the Yellow Knight was magically super-fast, specifically to counter a speedster. No, I wasn't going to draw out the M.P. references any further than "None shall pass." because this is serious stuff and I felt levity had no place here. And it will only get seriouser. And Firestorm? He agrees with you. And ... hold yer horses, Missy! You'll get to see what Neron has up his Evil Sleeve of Evilness soon enough. Trust me. Heh-heh.**

**LilithRyoka: Short? It's not ... um ... well, okay, maybe it is short IN COMPARISON with the other chapters. Sort of. But still, it's 6000-odd words. Not exactly a quickie. BUT, for the Things To Come, we will see who fights and how. At this point ... anything could happen in the upcoming Battle of Awesomeness. Except more Monty Python references. I think. And, yes, I SHALL WRITE. I'm writing now, much to the chagrin of the two main characters.**

**Spikesagitta: Anticlimactic it may have been, but it should NOT have been unexpected. When Set met them a couple chapters back, he very matter-of-fact-ly informed the girls that he would come and kill Dorno when they found him. He didn't say "try" to kill him. You are right about the upcoming tiff, though. It will be ... non-trivial.]**

**. . .**

**. . .**

**[ADDENDUM to Author's FURTHER End Notes: An Observation.**

**Okay, folks. This chapter got 61 hits in the first five hours after I put it up. And you would see, were you to look, a total of 3 reviews of said chapter. That's slightly under a 5% response rate.**

**Now, pray do not take this wrong, but here on FFnet the authors post their work for all to see. They do it for free. They expect no remuneration. In fact, the only coin they desire is feedback, and they DO desire that. If we make a mistake, we expect to be told. If our writing stinks, we would HOPE that someone would be kind enough to point out ways in which it could be improved. ("Hey, those punctuation keys are NOT included on the computer keyboard by accident. Try them out. You won't regret it!") If the writing is good, so much the better. Say so! Even one line is better than nothing. ("Enjoy your work." or "Good story! What happens next?" or "I just don't get this. You should go learn to knit.") Silence is the hallmark of apathy, and apathy has no place in this community. Speak up! You have a voice! Use it!**

**This was not intended as a rant or a begging session. The presence or absence of reviews is not going to color my approach to the story one iota. I am writing because I have to. My Muse stands behind me with a riding crop and applies it liberally if I so much as slow down, Real Life intrusion notwithstanding. But, please, My Friends! Listen! You are depriving yourselves of a hand in the creative process every time you pass up the chance to review! Seriously! If you want to get better as a writer ... hey, write reviews! You could do worse. And you may even strike up a new friendship. I always respond to the reviews I get, and have frequently had other authors respond to mine ... and believe me, I am NOT SHY about leaving reviews on the stories I read! You can meet the coolest people that way. **

**Try it.]**


	8. Chapter 8 Culmination

**ENEMY OF MY ENEMY**

**[Author's Notes: Thank You All for giving me such good and useful feedback on the last chapter! As a reward (though whether you will consider it a reward after you read it may be a variable) here is the next chapter. Note, please, that this is not the FINAL chapter. There is one more.]**

**. . .**

**. . .**

**. . .**

_[Disclaimer: DC owns the characters … all of 'em. I own the plot. But I won't make a nickel off of it in any fashion, so I'd rather not get sued, if it's all the same to you. Blood from a turnip, you know.]_

_**Chapter Eight – Culmination**_

_* * JLA Headquarters * *_

**Batman:** We're recording. Go ahead whenever you're ready.

**J'onn J'onzz: **Do you want us to go over the battle in any set order?

**Batman:** Not necessarily. As long as everyone gets a chance to tell as much of the story as he can, I don't believe …

**Zatanna:** Three of us _were_ female, you know.

**Batman: **… I beg your pardon?"

**Zatanna:** 'as much of the story as **he** can'?

**Batman:** … _sigh_ … Fine. As long as he _or she_ gets to tell his _or her_ story, order will not matter. Is that satisfactory?

**Zatanna:** Perfectly.

**Firestorm:** (_quietly_) Grammar Nazi.

**Zatanna: **_What?_

**Firestorm:** What? I'm just sitting here.

**Batman:** Would you two children like to share your issues with the rest of the class?

(indistinct muttering)

**Batman:** Thank you. I thought not. (_clears throat_) All right, this is JLA-IR-P04-113A. You've already given your individual statements about everything that happened between the time you landed and the point where the Hell Hounds attacked, at which time we all decided that creating an official record would be a good idea. I understand some duplication may be unavoidable.

**J'onn:** In that case, I think that Hal should go first. Zatanna, you had Set's Mnemonic Grimoire last, didn't you?"

**Zatanna:** Got it right here. None of us will miss anything.

**Green Lantern: **All right, suits me. Just set it there in the middle of the table. … Okay. First off? Never, in all my life, have I witnessed a more telling, a starker example of bravery and selflessness. Even now I look back on it in awe. Thought _I_ knew something about will power …

**Zatanna:** You must mean Jinx.

**GL:** Yes.

**Zatanna**: I'll vouch for that.

**GL**: Thanks. Now, don't get me wrong. I've come up against some pretty crazy situations in my day. Comes with the territory when you're part of the Corps, but yours truly always seemed to be more of a trouble magnet than the general run of Lanterns. At one time or another I've faced off against some of the nastiest nasties our galaxy had to offer; I've been possessed by an Elemental Fear Entity; I've been dead, and then brought back to life years later; I even served for a while as the embodiment of the Spirit of Vengeance, which is, let me just state for the record, _**not**_ fun. But I gotta tell ya: this little caper we got caught up in with Raven and Jinx just about takes the cake. I've never before been responsible for seeing to it that the _whole freakin' entire universe_ doesn't get sucked up as a demon lord's lunch.

**Zatanna**: Don't feel like the Lone Ranger, there, Hal.

**Flash**: Yeah, she beat me to it.

**GL**: I know, I know. It was a unique situation for all of us. And the demon lord in question wasn't making it easy on anybody.

**Firestorm**: Bastard.

**GL:** That he was. Okay … Hell Hounds. Yeah, never met up with those before. I tried to contain one and it just waltzed right through the barrier. I managed not to get bitten – which I learned later would have probably been fatal – and was told in no uncertain terms to stay the hell away from them.

**J'onn:** That held true for all of us who were not magic-users.

**GL:** Right. Zee and Jinx took out the three who attacked us. By then we were all in the big room. That's when Raven called the dragon, and things started getting weird.

**Batman:** I'm still having a little trouble with this whole 'dragon' concept, at least with the way you've all explained it.

**GL: **We'll get to that. I flew over with J'onn and Ronny to try to get to the sorcerer while Jinx and Zee took care of the Hell Hounds, but he had a force field up and it just shrugged off everything we tried to get through it.

**J'onn:** I attempted to exert mental influence on him, but that did not work. Either his force dome prevented it, or he was otherwise immune.

**Firestorm:** I started digging through the floor, thinkin' I could tunnel under him and get to him that way, but it was slow goin'. Like the rock, you know, didn't _want_ to change. It's … hard to describe.

**GL:** The sorcerer probably magicked it to make it resistant to transmutation. Then there was his voice to consider.

**Flash:** He's right about that. I could hear him just fine from way back down the corridor.

**GL:** Yes. His voice was unbelievably loud. I guess it was either transmitting through the rock or it was magically amplified. Whichever, we could barely hear each other shouting. That's why we didn't know what was going on behind us. The first inkling we had that the dragon was even there was when he just pushed us all out of the way and attacked the dome himself. Sprayed it with what I assume was magical fire, because the force field just gave up. Then …

**Firestorm:** Then the sorcerer saw the dragon and he screamed, and the dragon _totally _squashed him like a bug. Awesome, man.

**Batman:** And you are sure – beyond reasonable doubt at least – that it was really a dragon and not an illusion.

**Firestorm:** Hal? You wanna field this one?

**GL:** He was real. He was a magical being of extreme potency. He could shape-change at will, and his – I guess you'd say his 'resting' form – was that of a really, really big dragon. Wings, scales of some gray, metallic substance, claws, fangs, the whole ball o' wax. If he _wasn't_ a dragon, he'll certainly _do_ until a real one turns up. Besides, Neron referred to him as a dragon.

**Zatanna:** But it seemed the interruption of the spell had come too late. His sacrificial victims were dead, which was apparently what was needed to power the gateway.

**Firestorm:** Yeah, that's when Neron started trying to make it through. Ugliest damn thing I ever saw.

**Zatanna:** And the scariest.

**GL:** And that's when the dragon took things in hand – er, paw? talon? – whatever. He took command of the situation. Not that it did any good when all hell broke loose …

####

_* * Jinx * *_

Set looked over at me and held out his hand. "Your sword."

I tossed him Excalibur. He immediately began growing, and the sword grew along with him.

The air around Neron's eyes darkened. They seemed to follow Set's progress as he grew, narrowing in anger.

I said, "What else can I do?"

In my head, his voice replied, _Collect as much of your hex energy as you can. I will call for it when I need it._

I started powering up. My body produces the hex energy all the time, at a low rate, and it builds up in my soft tissues, especially the nervous system. I always have a reserve of the stuff to call on. As far as I can recall, I've never run dry, even after a really big shot, like what I did to the Yellow Knight. But if I put my mind to it, I can force the production rate up exponentially and then things _really_ get hot. I don't know if there's an upper limit to how much hex energy I can store. Maybe – like, maybe really soon– I'll get to find out.

Looking at the place where Neron's eyes hung over the growing lava pool, I could sort of make out a hazy silhouette, kind of like the suggestion of horns. Then the air under the eyes split, forming a mouth, and it opened, and flame shot out of it, and it spoke.

_**How cute. **_

_**Do you think to oppose me,**_

_**little dragon?**_

Set didn't answer. He had one arm lifted high, brushing the roof of the huge chamber, his fingers – and he had more of 'em – in an odd configuration; the other, holding the now-gigantic sword, was pointed straight at where the demon was forming. Set spoke, a fluid string of syllables that I couldn't understand or remember, and a stream of liquid silver erupted from the tip of the sword. The glittering shower fell and divided and began to swirl around Neron, forming a sort of dome. It contracted several meters, and the glowing eyes dropped back towards the molten puddle in the floor.

I took some heart from that. Maybe, just possibly, I'd get out of this alive. If Set really could contain him, and I didn't have to use Mister Twister …

That gave me something to shoot for. I was revving my system for all it was worth, and was glowing brightly enough to bathe all the near walls in a livid coat of pink. Raven came up on my left. She was wrapped in a layer of soul-self, and had her Spirit Wrack in one hand. The look in her eyes was such a potent combination of 'lost' and 'determined' that it scared me. More than I already was, I mean. She laid a hand on my shoulder and said, "You need to channel your hex energy into me."

My mouth dropped open. "But you don't know how to handle it! It could kill you!"

"It'll be all right," she assured me.

I wasn't assured. "What's it for?"

"Set needs it. I'm going to send it through the Spirit Wrack, and Set will use it to seal the portal and keep Neron out."

"… It looks to me like that horse is already out of the barn."

"Not yet. Not completely." She pointed at the eyes. "That's just a representation of his will. Set thinks that by killing Dorno, he may have interrupted the spell before it was quite complete. Neron's trying to force his way through what's left of the barrier, but Set has a spell that might be able to cap off the portal."

I watched as he worked on the spell. The waves of magic he was giving off made my hair stand up straight.

Raven tugged at my arm. "Charge me up!"

Reluctantly I did, siphoning the wild energies and pouring them into my girl, who just stood there and soaked them in. Then she lifted the Spirit Wrack …

But that's when the dog-demon things started pouring out of the half-formed portal, and the guys waded into 'em.

####

_* * J'onn J'onzz * *_

I am, among other things, the most powerful telepath on Earth, and probably can claim that title for the galaxy in general. To say that I was shocked by my inability to gain mental contact with the insane sorcerer would be to understate the case badly. That was to be the first of several shocks I received that evening.

Understanding that the demonic eyes floating just on the other side of the thin dome of magical energy were not the real demon, but only a manifestation of his will, did little to reassure me. The maleficent intent, the raw hatred, the sheer, distilled evil that poured out of this hole between dimensions was stunning in its intensity. Images raced through my mind, images of what Neron would like to do to us all – and especially to me – images that threatened to cost me my last meal and encouraged me to put as much distance as possible between the demon and me. But I have faced evil before – perhaps not of this power, but strong evil nonetheless – and I would not run.

I still do not know whether Set's mental communication was straight telepathy or some form of magically-induced transfer. In either case, it was most impressive. He unloaded his plan directly into our brains, linking us up as a cohesive unit and showing us how it may be accomplished. I have done similar things in the past, but not as smoothly or as easily as he did.

The three of us – Green Lantern and Firestorm and I – quickly flew up and positioned ourselves at roughly equal points around the sparkling dome that Set had made. I was beginning to be excited about this spell he was going to attempt. The combination of all the various powers, merged into a cohesive whole, would be entirely new as far as Set could tell. He had never had this to work with before, and I think, in some way, that the novelty charmed him.

My powers are psychic in nature. Firestorm's are based on nuclear energy, the electromagnetic spectrum, the weak force, and the strong force. Hal Jordan's are mostly techno-based, but there are elements of the way he exercises his will through the Ring that are decidedly psychic in flow and function. Then there is Jinx, whose own unique probability-altering emanations are still a mystery to me, and Raven, whose half-demon status is rare enough, but whose childhood experiences and unparalleled control over her 'soul-self' make her singularly inscrutable and her magic even more so. How these unrelated energies would interact was something that I felt privileged to witness.

First, however, there was the problem with the canine-morph demons that started hopping out of the lava. They were about a meter and a half long, could run on all fours or just their hind legs, and looked like they were constructed of burning charcoal. These were quite different from the Hell Hounds we had just fought, having a distinctly solid corporeal form. Each one, as it appeared, stopped to shake off the remaining bits of lava, and then ran right through the sorcerer's barrier, ostensibly to attack Set.

Green Lantern and I were the nearest to the demon-dogs, so we attacked them first. He smashed five with his Power Ring and I destroyed the other three by hand. But that was merely the first wave. They came out in groups of eight, and while destroying them did not give us any real trouble, it was distracting enough that we could not maintain our places long enough for Set to get his spell in formation. Mentally, I felt around for Zatanna, because I felt sure she would be able to do this for us, but she was not close by. However, at that juncture, she and Flash came back into the great hall from the corridor. I was surprised to see him moving, but he did not appear encumbered …

####

_* * Zatanna * *_

Set didn't need my help, at least not right away, and let me know it good and quick. It wasn't so much a case of disrespect as incompatibility. The way Innate Magic works and the way my personal brand of magic works … they just don't play well together.

That didn't mean I couldn't be useful, though, and he didn't say I couldn't pitch in. Just not with his spell. That left me a lot of latitude.

It was tough getting past my reaction to the unbelievable level of hatred pouring out of the rip in that dimensional barrier. It tended to get a grip on my attention, since Neron had some … _creative_ ways of expressing how much he wanted us all dead, and he was paying particular attention to me. Maybe it was because of the kind of magic I use, but he seemed to be taking a deep, personal interest in how he could take me apart in the most painful ways possible. But I was able to shake it off – or just bull my way past it. I did some quick, basic detection spells on the portal, and it seemed to me that the lava flow was an integral part of it. Maybe I couldn't cap it off, the way Set was going to try, but I figured that if the lava froze that would at least _distract_ Neron for a while. And anything we could do to slow him down would help the cause.

I thought for a few seconds and came up with something. Where I was standing, off to Set's left, was out of view of Neron's direct gaze, so I didn't think he'd try to stop me immediately.

That's what I get for thinking.

My spell was no sooner out of my mouth than I could feel the feedback building. I threw up a shield and jumped to the side at the same time, and still nearly got my head blown off by the backlash. And that was without the demon even paying any attention! Cocky bastard.

Okay, that plan was dead on arrival. Direct confrontation was out, which left support services, and _that_ I knew I could do. I flew back out the way we'd come in and found the Flash. He was right where we'd left him, lying down and holding the severed pieces of his hot-suit together to keep out the cold.

He nodded toward the end of the corridor. "How's it going out there?"

"Lousy. Need your help."

"Uh … okay. Don't know how much good I can do, as weak as I am, but …"

"I'll fix that. We were in a big hurry before, but now I have a little time to do it right. You just hold still." I had done major feats of healing before, and this one wouldn't be too bad. He had never even lost consciousness. The only real issue was the bit of residual 'bad mojo' that sword left in the wound. That's why he didn't bounce right back the first time. But I knew a few ways to take care of it …

####

_* * Firestorm * *_

We were eyeball-deep in a crock o' shit and we knew it. I'd never before (and hope to never again) been able to _feel _evil, like _physically_. That demon bastard had me dead in his sights and was pouring it on. It was like a thick blanket of slime mashing down on my body, only the slime was hot and sticky and made me want to throw up. I'm nobody's idea of a magician, but even I could tell that the dragon's magic was no match for what was coming through that dimensional portal. Still, his plan sounded intriguing. Nobody had ever tried anything like it before, prob'ly because this combination hadn't ever been together before. I figured, what the hell. Might as well go down swingin' right at the start of things instead of being hunted down like a dog through whatever dystopia is left once Da Big Bad Cheese takes over.

He was gonna use Jinx's hex energy and some component of Raven's soul-self, mix 'em with Hal's Ring technology and my power over all things nuclear, stir in a little bit of J'onn's awesome psychic prowess, bind it all with his own kind of magic, and spread it across the opening like some sort of voodoo epoxy. I couldn't understand much of it, but the way he described it made it sound at least a _little_ plausible.

The first problem that cropped up was that Neron had … okay; call 'em shock troops. Little demon things that started crawling out of the portal and past the dome. I don't know why _they_ could get through if the _Boss Himself_ couldn't. Maybe because Set's spell just targeted Neron? Who knows? Not me. But the problem with those creepy-crawlies was that they distracted us. J'onn and Hal kept having to break off from the spell ring to fight 'em because when they got through they would head straight for Set, and he was a little preoccupied.

But then Zatanna came back in with the Flash, and they took over that job. Did it up fine, too. Zee rummaged around in her hat and pulled out this big … mace-looking thing. It was about a meter long and had a jaggedy head on one end that kept throwing off sparks. Flash was _**way**_ more than a match for anything that came out after that, and so we could take our positions around Set's barrier spell …

####

_* * Raven * *_

It may have just been a trick of the magic, but I could swear that Neron was staring directly at me, like he recognized me. That isn't a good thing. The force of his rage and hatred smacked into me, pressing down like some kind of evil torture device, and it was with an effort that I threw off its effects. I had the sneaking suspicion that this was not going to end well. The Marks of Scath that covered my body – normally invisible unless you knew exactly what you were looking for – were dormant. They weren't responding to Neron's presence at all, which meant that I wasn't acting as any sort of portal for him. No surprises there. He had power in plenty from the necromancy that Velez-al'Aziz had performed. Five sentient deaths, just to craft a dimensional doorway? Overkill, I say. But that's how my father's family does things.

Set's spell sounded workable at first blush, and I certainly didn't have anything better to offer. I don't know how he knew that the Spirit Wrack would protect me from the immediate effects of Jinx's hex energy, but I'm glad he did. I've often wondered what it felt like, you know? I've been on the business end of those bad-luck balls more times than I like to remember, and if one of them actually touches you, look out! Fortunately for me, back in the day, Jinx was more interested in property damage. She knew that targeting a living creature would pretty much guarantee its death (something she explained to me long after the fact, humans being so fragile and all) and while she prided herself on her skills as a thief, she wasn't even _remotely_ interested in being tagged as a murderer.

It felt great. The hex energy, I mean. It was very different from any other kind of magic I'd ever been exposed to. Not surprising, since some of it isn't magic at all, but her meta-human talent for altering probability. But it was light and fluffy and buoyant and bright and … not _anything_ like my soul-self. Nothing at all. I'm not saying it was the _opposite_, per se, but … well, maybe I am. It was a unique experience.

And she poured it into me, and I channeled it into the Spirit Wrack, and the thing sat there in my hands and took it …

####

_* * Set * *_

This was not a battle I expected to win. But if there is one thing I have learned in my multiple millennia of association with humans, one thing I would dearly love for my dragon brethren to grasp, it is this: you'll _never_ win if you give up. And if you _never_ give up, it's just possible that the gods may take notice and lend a hand.

That summed up my view of the situation to a nicety.

I have used, at one time or another, every non-demonic form of magic that is found in this dimension. Some of them work for me without much trouble. Some of them are more … problematic. The form of magic that Zatanna uses is incompatible with most other forms. Though the _homo magi_ call themselves sorcerers, it is not sorcery. They have access to a semi-parallel plane of existence, empty except for an overabundance of magical energy, and by utilizing their "Backward Speech" spell casting methods they are able to effect some very impressive results. It would not stretch credulity to say that Zatanna is the most powerful member of their group, under most circumstances. But the Magi never go insane, at least not as co-morbidity with magic use. People – humans – like Velez-al'Aziz who do not have the Magi trait, but who pursue studies into true sorcery are, quite simply, doomed. Madness is inevitable.

That doesn't mean I didn't derive a great deal of pleasure from snuffing out his miserable life. Too long had he lived as a parasite to his own species.

Jinx's probability matrix, I believed, was the key through which these various forces might be amalgamated into something much greater than the sum of the parts. I would have liked more time to study the interactions. I cannot help but feel that if I _**had**_ the time – say four or five hundred years – I could craft an enchantment that would expel the noxious demon from our universe. That, however, is neither here nor there. We did _not_ have the time, and I was forced to make shift as I could with what I had.

It would be false modesty to say that I did not know what I was doing. I had a very _good_ idea of how to accomplish our shared goal of keeping Neron out of our segment of the multiverse. By overlaying the Martian's psychic abilities and the Nuclear Man's facility with molecular transformations on a piece of Raven's soul-self, tying them together with Green Lantern's willpower – which is widely accounted the zenith of that state of being, in this galaxy at any rate – and then infusing the combination with Jinx's hex matrix, it should be possible to fabricate a dimensional plug that would close the tears that idiot sorcerer made in the fabric of reality.

I set to work on this, interrupted a few times by the demonic constructs that kept crawling out of the pit. Not true demons at all, they were little more than homunculi, created by Neron out of the material on our side of the portal … and under his direction, of course. They distracted my spell elements, and slowed us down when we did not have that temporal luxury. But the Flash took things in hand and soon all was ready. I siphoned off the disparate powers from their sources and began weaving my tapestry …

####

_* * Green Lantern * *_

I liked Set's style. Not that I thought we had a snowball's chance in a volcano of pulling it off, but when have I ever let _that_ stop me?

Once Flash got things under control with regards to the dog-demons, Raven's dragon friend didn't waste any time. I am not a magician. But the power of my Ring lets me see a lot of things that others can't, and I was able to watch as he constructed his dimensional plug. It really was a thing of beauty.

He called on me first, to attach a layer of willpower to the magical dome he already had in place. I know it's difficult to picture what that might look like – or even feel like – but I've been wielding my will as a tool for a great many years, and I knew instinctively what it was he wanted. It was child's play.

Then he took a piece of Raven's soul-self and spun it out into an impossibly long strand of gossamer darkness. Threading it millions of times through the outer edges of my willpower, he drew up the loops and pulled them toward the top center of the dome, weaving them all together on the way into the finest mesh you could imagine.

Firestorm's mastery over the elements was added next. I didn't understand at first what Set was trying to achieve, but then I saw that it wasn't a _transformation_ he was trying to effect – it was _resistance_ to transformation. Neron was working to establish a beachhead here, and to do that he would have to change the essence of our reality locally. (More than it already had been by the lunatic sorcerer.) The dragon wove elemental rigidity into the web of soul-self, establishing it as the immutable standard, making it proof against tampering. A brilliant tactic.

It wasn't obvious to me, when Set drew psychic energy from J'onn, exactly what it was to be used for. I still don't know. But he took the energy, the quintessential power of the mind, and overlay a thin deposit of it on both surfaces of his construct. My best guess would be that he intended for it to act as a protective shield to the mesh. But that's just a guess.

Finally, he pulled Jinx's massive load of hex energy out of the odd device that Raven held, and this is where I was able to recognize his genius. He split the probability-altering matrix into billions of tiny spikes, and laced each one into a gap in the mesh, with the business end pointed inward. Then he charged them to nullify any attack on the mesh, converting the energies expended against it into additional willpower to hold it in place.

It was an elegant and beautifully designed solution, and it worked exactly the way he had intended for it to. The harder Neron attacked it, the more powerful it would become, at least in theory. As each of us was still connected to it, we could, in our own ways, contribute to its strength … and this we did, with all our might.

Neron, meanwhile, had not been idle. I think he had prepared a magical attack of his own, and he launched it not long after Set finished his spell.

####

_* * Raven * *_

Hope was running a little thin in my mind. Neron is my cousin, my sire's nephew, and I do know something about how he operates. Trigon always had a contingency plan. So, I expected, did Neron. Set's spell, once I understood it, impressed me mightily, his mastery over all things arcane becoming quite obvious. I would like to have the chance to study with him, if he would allow it. But the tight, sinking sensation in my gut kept whispering to me that I wasn't going to get the chance.

The new overlay changed the appearance of the dome: it wasn't silvery-gray anymore, but now a soft, glowing rose color with little streaks of white and spring-green running here and there. Also, as Set chanted, it was contracting, pulling on the edges of the lava pool, creeping slowly toward the middle and leaving frozen rock in its passing. I am fairly certain that if Neron hadn't been actively opposing us, the seal would have operated flawlessly and we would have spent the next day toasting our victory.

Where the snag hit was that Neron _**was**_ opposing us. And that isn't a trivial consideration.

His first attack was subtle, but no less devastating for that. He had identified Firestorm as the weak link in the equation: he was the youngest and most untried element in Set's spell, his powers were physical in nature, and he had no first-hand experience with either magic or psychic manifestations. A much lesser savant than Neron could have exploited that. And the demon lord was old, and crafty, and cunning, and treacherous. He attacked the hero's mind. I couldn't tell what sorts of illusions were used, or what passed between them, but Firestorm suddenly cried out and pulled back. He seemed to be trying to scrape or push something off his body. His panic was obvious. Jinx and I were very much occupied with channeling her hex energy into Set's spell, or I would have attempted to aid him. Not that I imagine I would have done much good. Neron is orders of magnitude more powerful than I.

That was the beginning of the end. Set divided his attention, casting a protective ward around Firestorm that calmed him almost immediately, but the damage had been done. The barrier spell bulged alarmingly and changed color to an angry red. I could feel an ominous vibration begin that transferred into the Spirit Wrack, and then I could feel it in the floor. Firestorm flew back up to his position and tried to reestablish control, but he couldn't seem to get a grip on things. He poured his power into the matrix, but instead of coalescing with the spell, it cascaded off, as if being rejected. I could see him trying several different things, becoming obviously more frustrated at each new failure. Meanwhile, the dome was gradually but inexorably growing taller. We couldn't really catch a glimpse through it anymore; it was both too bright and too opaque, the redly-coruscating surface seeming to boil and strain at some restraint we couldn't identify, like a living thing that struggled to break free of a snare. We all felt it. None of us looked at each other, though. We were all too busy with our own tasks.

Firestorm kept at it for what I would estimate was about four minutes. Then a red-and-black pseudopod shot out from the base of the dome and hit him squarely in the chest. He froze, stunned for a second, then he grew slightly transparent and slowly floated away, finally bumping into the nearest wall and settling into a heap on the floor.

####

_* * Jinx * *_

It was the weirdest feeling I'd ever had. And that's sayin' something.

My hex energy was being used to protect the barrier spell, to re-direct the demon's attacks into fuel for the magic holding him in. It was a thing of beauty to watch and I paid very close attention. Maybe I could figure out how to do something like that myself down the road. Assuming I had any road left after today. And that assumption was looking more like a shit-pot all the time.

Through Raven, through the Spirit Wrack, through Set's spells, I was getting feedback from the billions of little pieces of hex energy. The way he had it set up, whenever Neron attacked, the protective needles of hex would be expended in deflecting and re-formatting that blow. Then the spell would draw on my energy, feed it through the Wrack, and replace those needles. So far I was holding my own. But if Neron ramped up his attack strength or frequency … well, I just wasn't sure. I know I'm awesome and all, but I'm just one meta-human. He's a demon lord in charge of a dimension. Those two facts played tag with each other around the back of my head. But I kept my mind focused on what Set needed. Getting distracted wouldn't help anyone but Neron (damn my ADHD!) and I wasn't about to give him any edge I could hold.

Then I noticed something weird was up with the Martian.

####

_* * J'onn J'onzz * *_

I cannot say exactly when it was that Neron's will came to overshadow mine. I did not notice anything, had no clue that he was worming his way into my mind. This will require serious study at a later time. He should not have been able to do that.

I had not allowed Firestorm's fall to affect my concentration. Set needed psychic support in protecting the mesh he had created that seemed at once so delicate, but was in fact nearly indestructible. Indestructible, that is, as long as nothing punctured the psychic covering. One second, I was completely focused, all my vast talent concentrated on the one task Set had assigned me. The next … I failed.

I was not having trouble with my part of the plan. The tiny whiskers of hex energy that formed the aggregate in my psychic matrix performed amazingly well. It brought to mind the ancient Spartan "meat grinder" technique for when a few men would need to defend a narrow defile against a much larger force. Jinx's power complemented mine _perfectly_, and we protected one another _perfectly_. I had detected, on some level, each time Neron struck the barrier; I could sense Set's application of her hex power, sense how it didn't deflect the attacks so much as absorb and reconfigure them. Then he would call for more, and she would supply it.

But the flawless operation of this system depended on the support and alignment of my psychic matrix. Somehow, Neron found my Achilles heel. As I mentioned, it will require study.

Between one breath and the next, I went from a part of the team to one of Neron's tools. I did not realize what was happening until I impacted the barrier around Green Lantern. It is fortunate for him that he already had it in place. He would not have had time to erect it otherwise.

My abilities are many. I am the second-most-durable member of the Justice League (some might say the most durable, given Superman's weakness to kryptonite) and when I concentrate on making my form dense through phase manipulation, I am essentially invulnerable. I hit Green Lantern's shield, if I recall correctly, five times in the first second. (I am also extremely fast.) It knocked him away from his position, and rushing to catch up with him allowed me enough time to realize what I was doing and to take countermeasures.

My countermeasures, however, were not immediately up to the task. I attacked him again, but with much less fervor, as I struggled to regain control of my body. However, this time he hit back.

The power of his Ring is formidable. I was knocked a few meters into the living rock of the chamber wall, and had to phase into an insubstantial state to escape. That seemed to weaken Neron's control over my mind, so I decided to stay that way. But then it became a contest of wills.

I have considerable willpower. It is not, I will admit, on a par with Hal Jordan's, but there are few others who can overcome me that way. Our battle lasted for quite some time, relatively speaking. Possibly as much as a minute. During that time, I like to believe that Neron was so occupied with maintaining his control over me that he was unable to make any further attacks. The dome did contract somewhat, and the color faded away from the terribly angry red that it had been. But Neron is thousands of years old, and has the resources of a dimension at his disposal. The outcome of our contest was never really in doubt. My consolation there was that when he did overcome my last shreds of resistance, I passed out rather than passing again into his control.

####

_* * Green Lantern * *_

This reminded me of an Agatha Christie novel: _And Then There Were None_.

Yeah, that's about how it went. Once my head stopped ringing after J'onn smacked me, and I got back to the business at hand, things were coming apart pretty badly. I redoubled my efforts at keeping the dome's integrity intact, and I could feel Set's magic ramping up, too. Gotta admire that guy.

But, in the final analysis there wasn't much we could do. The spell was raveling. I tried concentrating on the edges. Neron did, too. We had a brief contest there, but I was human, and tired, and injured.

Something gave way somewhere along the rim. One edge lifted a fraction of a millimeter, but that was enough. The blast front that exploded from that crack took out the rest of us. Neron's hideous voice filled the chamber, hurting my ears and setting my teeth on edge. My last conscious image was that of Zatanna flying through the air away from the dome, upside down, and thinking, _She really does have nice legs._

####

_* * Jinx * *_

I guess the only reason I didn't get knocked unconscious with the rest was that I was standing behind Raven, and she was holding the Spirit Wrack, and it must have deflected some of the blast. But it hurt. Oh, gods, how it hurt. I felt like I'd been worked over with a rubber hose, after nearly drowning.

Seriously, demon lords? I hate 'em.

I had fetched up against the wall and had to shake my head a few times to get my vision to focus. I squinted and took in the scene. Set was still there! Go fig. I started crawling back that way, arguing with my muscles the whole time.

But the dragon wasn't going to last long. That much I knew. And I knew what that meant for me.

That deduction pulled a long sigh out of me. I didn't want to do it. I didn't want for it to be necessary. But, like the way Jagger said, you can't always get what you want. I finally reached Raven, and dragged her and Green Lantern around behind a pillar and opened the magic bag. Heaven (or really, to be precise, I guess you'd say Hell) only knew how long I'd have, and this would take a couple of minutes. I hoped Set could last that long.

The floor zigzagged again. Good thing I was sitting down. I found the Eye, which I placed on Raven's chest, folding her hands over it. The Charm of Waking was quick, and a few seconds later the Eye was glowing. Now she'd know what to do. Assuming she was awake when the time came. And willing, which she might not be.

I took a deep breath, my eyes squeezed shut. Neron's voice was a cheese-grater going to town on my last nerve. He'd be fully past the gate soon, and I had to be ready.

I gulped more air. Even with my possible 'out', this was gonna suck major, moldy wang. I pulled my heat suit off and stepped out of it. While I was wiggling out of my sweater, Mr. Jordan came to. He sat up and looked around, kinda foggy-like, and then zeroed in on me. Squinting, he asked, "What are you doing?"

"What has to be done." I tossed the sweater aside and popped my bra off. Gooseflesh covered my exposed skin. It was well below freezing in the huge hall.

He averted his eyes. "Have you gone mad?"

"Been there a long time, thanks for askin'. But if you mean _'why am I stripping?'_ it's because I have to get to my tattoo." I could tell by his expression that it wasn't sinking in. With an exasperated sigh, I added, "See if you can wake up Raven. And _whatever_ you do, _**don't **_lose that _gem!_ Got it?"

He nodded, the very image of confusion. But he did scoot over beside my lover and started trying to get her to come to.

I pushed my pants and underwear down to my knees. The tattoo had to be free and visible, but there was no way I was gonna take off my boots. My sweat would have welded my feet to the floor, and then where would we be, y'know?

I touched four points in turn at specific places on the tattoo, inscribing the Glyph of Opening for each spot. The tattoo glowed softly at those points; the luminous spots moved toward each other, coalesced into one, and then took on the shape of a medium-sized knife. Placing my hand over the image, I spoke the Word of Release. The Knife solidified and fell into my hand, the tightly-curved horn that served as the handle – and the reason I'd given it the knick-name of 'Mister Twister' – fitting my palm perfectly. Then I moved around until I could see the portal.

That … might not have helped my resolve much. The puddle of lava now spread out to a good thirty meters across. Neron's torso was clearly visible as he pushed and pushed against Set's spell, and the feral grin on his face froze my blood much more effectively than the frigid air ever could. The dragon had his hindquarters braced up in a crevice in the wall, and was chanting for all he was worth, but I could tell he wouldn't last much longer; Excalibur was a lot smaller, maybe only about twice as long as I am tall, and was shining so much I couldn't look at it. That _blast_, or whatever Neron did that took out the Leaguers, really did a number on the cap spell. And for all of Set's earlier poor-mouthing about scramming to another dimension if Neron broke through, he didn't look like he was planning to go anywhere. I had to admire him for that.

But this wasn't getting the job done. With the Knife in my left hand, I spoke the Prime Ward, and drew its tip carefully along the inside of my right forearm.

It hurt like hell. But I knew it would, so I grit my teeth and made the tiny rune-marks at each end of the cut. Neron wasn't paying me any attention yet, and that suited me fine. I had to be in full view of my target for this to have the best chance of working right the first time. And I wouldn't be getting a second try.

Transferring the Knife to my other hand, I noticed that the first pair of Engagement Sigils that traced along the handle had become visible. That was good. That meant the Ward was starting to work, and my years of planning and scheming _might_ not get tossed down the crapper.

The Knife in question had come into my possession quite by accident … you know, the way practically _everything_ in my life happens? Being a probability-altering locus has that effect on reality. So I just _happened_ to be in the right East-African village when the shaman, who just _happened_ to be the last in an extremely long line of Natural Magic Adepts, had just _happened_ to have a vision that someone with the eyes of a great cat would have need of his ceremonial blade to stop The End Of The World, and he just _happened_ to have an inside track on the ritual I would need. So he gave it to me. And he trained me.

I could tell the Knife was stuffed brim-full of magic, but it wasn't anything I recognized. The Knife was old … _really, really_ old; it was made of stone or something similar – obsidian, maybe, except it was a reddish-brown color instead of black – and according to the shaman it was unbreakable. I didn't know so much about that. The edge was that serrated, 'flaked off' thing that I'd seen on flint arrowheads, and the point came up to a needle. It was sharp as hell, but it looked pretty fragile to me, at least the edge did; that horn handle was tough as oiled ironwood. Come to find out, some months after I left that village, the horn belonged to a species of deer-like critter that had been extinct since before the last ice age.

At the time I thought _Whatever_, but he insisted I had to have it, and he also insisted that I needed to know everything there was to know concerning the thing. What he taught me – that is, what I found out about the Knife, and its history and what it was made for – is what led me to where I stood now, about to face down a demon lord with magic words, ink, and a shitload of chutzpah.

Shaking my head to clear the cobwebs, I spoke the Deep Ward and made an identical cut on the inside of my left forearm. The skin parted, and parted rather deeply, but neither cut bled. That would come later.

Neron had wiggled his hips out of the magma and was pressing Set's dome almost up to the roof. I noticed, off to the right in my peripheral vision, that J'onn was stuck about halfway into the rock. He looked bad.

_Stop it! Don't get distracted._

As I spoke the Apex Ward, I drew the tip of the Knife three times across my forehead, and _**that**_ bled like a sonuvabitch. I would have to keep my eyes closed for a while to keep from being blinded by my own blood. Stupid ritual. It was _originally_ intended to be performed on a sacrificial victim – which I had no intention of doing – and the priests wouldn't have cared whether or not he could see. I just hoped and prayed to whatever gods might be listening that my adaptation worked as well.

The Ward of Revelation was what finally got Neron's attention. When I shook some of the blood off my face and completed it, my tattoo started to glow, and the pattern was familiar enough that he noticed it. His grin faded, replaced by a look of the most profound rage I'd ever been completely unable to imagine. His momentary lapse gave Set an opening, and he spun a new kink into the spell. The dome gave Neron a push and shoved him back until just his head and hands stuck out of the lava.

But I knew that wouldn't hold him. The barrier between dimensions was too badly torn, and nothing would hold the demon lord back for long. The only consolation, if you can call it that, is that this spot was the one place where he _could_ access our universe.

Lucky me.

With that last Ward in place I could see the 'dotted lines' I would need to cut along. I spoke the Ward of Joining and made the slashes.

I _thought_ it hurt when I cut my arms. This felt like it was cutting into my soul … and you know … it probably was.

The slices, once I'd completed the end runes, yawned open, and then they and the first two slashes started spitting these bright yellow sparks. I could feel the attraction. The Knife had to be placed just so …

"What the _hell_ are you _doing?"_

It was Raven. She looked pretty woozy, but even in that state she had to be able to detect the magicks I was using. Understandably, she was pissed.

"I'm doing what needs to be done, Sweetie." I handed her the Knife. "I'm glad you're awake. Here, place that between my arms."

She stared at the ancient thing as if it were about to bite her. "I'll do no such thing! I'm not about to let you sacrifice yourself just because of …"

Neron's roar of triumph drowned out whatever she was about to say. I cursed under my breath and grabbed the Knife back. If she wasn't gonna help, well, I'd practiced doing this by myself. I balanced the Knife on my right forearm, then placed my left arm over it, holding it in place at the halfway point. Then I brought my arms in close to my belly, and the strong sympathetic magic took over. The cuts called to each other, my arms slammed in against my torso, and the point of the Knife got buried in my gut.

My blood squirted out around the blade. Somehow … and please don't ask me how … I kept my feet. The pain was indescribable, so I won't try to describe it. Vaguely, as if from a great distance, I heard what sounded like Raven screaming. Mr. Jordan might have been yelling something, too, but I couldn't be sure. I took a few experimental breaths, just to make certain that I could do it all in one shot, and then, staring straight into Neron's hellish eyes, I spoke the Geas of Binding.

A gray mist, a mist made of magic and my own blood, built up around my feet, spreading outward toward the lava pool. Neron had nearly fought free of Set's spell. He was looking at me, and nothing else but me, screaming his rage in a voice that shook small rocks loose from the immense chamber's vaulted ceiling.

Let me ask you something. Have you ever had the full, undivided attention of a spitting-mad demon lord? No? Well, I don't recommend it. It doesn't do squat for one's peace of mind. I _did_ get a little bit of insight into what Raven must have gone through with Trigon, though. Can't say I think much of the experience. Trust me; you'll never want to sleep again.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Raven and Mr. Jordan arguing about something. They both kept pointing at me. But I had to concentrate on what was coming next. In the original ritual, the priests would be calling the demon into a thaumaturgic circle. The timing for everything would be precise because they would be in control. Here, I had to just hope I got it right and trust to my luck. So I watched as Neron stretched Set's eldritch barrier, watched the dragon as he not-so-slowly gave way before the demonic onslaught, watched as the magic began to fray and part and strain, watched while my blood ran hot down my legs …

Just before it broke, just before the last thread snapped and the dome came apart in tatters of fire and darkness, I spoke the Final Warding, ending the chant with Neron's True Name, the name that had been encased in the Knife uncountable millennia ago, the name that was spelled out, now that my arms were joined to my torso, in the tattoo that covered half my body. Strangely, my voice echoed several times, sort of sinking into the fabric of reality, and opening up possibilities where none had been before.

Sounds faded out, faded away, faded to nothing. The motions of dragon and demon – motions that had before been so urgent, so frenetic – slowed to a crawl. Eagerly then the creeping mist grew and bubbled and leaped out toward the hell-spawned thing now standing on the edge of the lava pool. Lovingly it caressed his clawed feet, his red-scaled legs, the long white hair covering his torso, the black fangs filling his hideous mouth. Carefully, almost gently, it covered his form, encased his being.

Gift-wrapped the nasty son of a bitch.

When the cocooning was complete, time seemed to re-start. Raven and Mr. Jordan were both standing there, eyes bugged out, jaws hanging open. She turned to me and said something. She had to say it again before I understood.

"Is he bound?"

I shook my head, as much as I could. The spell wasn't complete. I waited for the binding to, uh … let's call it 'cure'. The mist shaded to red and gradually seemed to solidify, and when there was a firm, undeniable link between me and the demon, I spoke the Last Geas.

Raven screamed and covered her ears, falling to her knees. Mr. Jordan backed up a couple of steps and then tripped and fell on his butt, his mouth as round as his eyes. The words of that spell hadn't been used on this planet since before the discovery of iron, and the language was one that I suspected Raven might be at least a little familiar with. I wasn't supposed to be able to speak it, and ordinarily I wouldn't be, but that was part of the tattoo's magic. It had taken me a year and a day, exactly, to complete the tattoo. I'd hoped I'd never need it, that I could look at it simply for its artistic merit, the way Raven had. She really liked it.

I don't think she likes it now.

The mist started feeding back into me, slowly at first but then faster and faster, and as it diminished, it took Neron along with it.

This, you might say, is the part that I _**really**_ didn't like. The demon lord was sucked into the trap, his essence distilled and separated and compartmented into the various portions of the tattoo, his fires of rage banked, his power muted.

_Muted_ … not eliminated. _Banked_ … not extinguished.

The mist was gone. I swayed, crumpled, and fell on my side, dizzy and weak from blood loss. I couldn't move my arms. They were welded to my body. Then I realized that Raven was cradling my head in her lap.

"Why?" she whispered.

I licked my lips. "Last ditch … solution. Didn't … want to … but … had to."

Her tears mingled with the blood on my forehead, and it stung. That struck me as funny. With all the other pain I was feeling at the moment, her tears stung. I would have cried myself, had I been able to spare the energy.

I blinked the blood out of my eyes. "Do you … have … the Eye?"

"Huh?"

Mr. Jordan, who was squatting just behind her, held it out. She took it and gave it a look of distaste. "What's this for? Surely you don't think …"

"Yes!" I put as much emphasis into that word as I could. "This spell … was for … _minor_ demons. Won't hold … Neron … for long."

Her beautiful eyes, those marvelous lavender eyes that I wouldn't be seeing again for a long time, if ever, widened in shock. "No! I'm _not_ putting you in there! Not with you being bound to _him_ like that!"

"… Got to."

"I won't let you sacrifice yourself! I won't!"

"Not all sacrifice … is hollow, Rae. It's not … always loss. Sometimes …" I had to swallow a couple of times. "Sometimes it's just … passing … what you hold dear … to someone else."

"I _won't __**do **_it!"

"Then … all I did … all this work … will be … for nothing."

"There's got to be some other way!"

I took a few breaths, trying to get past the pain, trying to keep my focus through the blood loss. The blossom of fire in my gut was _really_ hard to ignore. "I heard, once … while traveling … that no matter … how long or how short … a life is … its truth, its meaning … whether or not … you can have joy from it … depends on … what it was lived for." I couldn't reach out to her, couldn't touch her, couldn't hold her, but I hoped she could see in my eyes how much I loved her. "Rae … I have that joy … I lived for you."

Her tears ran down her face in a continuous stream. My hearing was fading in and out, a sure sign that the bleeding was catching me up. I could barely hear her say, "I can't lose you again."

"Then … don't."

"… What do you mean?"

Part of the tattoo on my shoulder bulged and glowed for a second, then subsided. "Damn," I grunted. "_That_ hurt."

"Was that …"

"Yeah. Neron." I took a long breath and gathered my thoughts. "You're smart. You'll figure … something out. But if … we don't … put Neron in the Eye … he'll just break loose … and I'll die anyway. That was my first … plan, you know. Dying. He's bound up … with me now. My life is … his life. If I bleed to death … before he breaks loose … it will … destroy him."

Loss and anger and fear and desperation battled for supremacy on Raven's face. But finally she admitted defeat. "I'll get you back. I will."

"I'll … hold you to it."

She held the Eye to my forehead and spoke a short phrase …

####

Batman sat back in his chair, too stunned to speak for a moment. Finally he said, "So … she sacrificed herself?"

Green Lantern nodded once. "She did."

"That's … one of the most amazing things I've ever heard."

"It's like I said: the finest example of bravery I ever witnessed."

Tapping the Mnemonic Grimoire with a finger, Batman asked, "And you say this thing that Set gave recorded it all?"

"Ah … not exactly. It helps us, those of us who were there at the same time the book was, to recall the events with extreme clarity.

"And this … Eye of Eru? Is that what it's called?"

"Yes," answered Zatanna. "It's an ancient artifact. An indestructible, inescapable prison. From what I understand, time doesn't exist in the Eye. Anyone who goes into the Eye and is then brought back out doesn't experience any passage of time inside. So while Neron is held there he can't escape because the effort of escaping would take time, and no time passes there. Quite clever, really."

"Where is it?"

"Raven took it with her."

"I don't like it. She's not all that stable herself."

Zatanna shrugged. "I trust her."

"For a long time you didn't."

"Things change."

He mulled that over, remembering how adamantly opposed Zatanna had been to giving Raven any help or support when the girl first showed up half a dozen years ago. "And what about Jinx?"

"She's stuck in there with him."

"And she did that voluntarily?" Batman seemed to be having some trouble assimilating the information. "Planning it out over a period of _years?"_

J'onn nodded. "It would seem so. From what we gleaned from Raven before she left, Jinx spent at least two and probably three years in this effort, knowing all the time that, for the spell to be successful, she would have to die."

"That simply doesn't _sound_ like her. Nothing from her H.I.V.E. records would indicate any sort of long-view planning or selfless sacrifice. She's just a thief."

"No, Bruce," stated Zatanna. "She isn't 'just a thief'. She's a woman in love. And that makes all the difference in the world."

####


	9. Chapter 9 Hope

**ENEMY OF MY ENEMY**

_. . ._

_. . ._

_. . ._

_[Disclaimer: You know the drill. I realize no pelf in putting this story out there to be read, and in return DC doesn't sue me and take my soul and the souls of half my relatives. Because __they__ own the Titans. Them. Not me. Hard as that is to stomach.]_

_**Chapter Nine – Hope**_

####

_Brenn's World, Galactic Sector Three, The Rim Colonies_

Cloaked in darkness, safe from the violently rushing wind, Raven sat at ease between Set's wings, strapped to his broad back with tendrils of soul-self. The Eye of Eru floated a few centimeters from her nose, supported on a tripod of shimmering black mist as she stared into its green depths. She spent a lot of time doing that these days.

_**We are nearly there.**_

_Thank you._

The Eye went back into her reticule. She could feel it when the great creature wheeled to starboard and descended, feel the sudden lurch and the violent change in gravity's pull when they touched down. She released her barrier, drawing the soul-self back into her.

Set had already determined that this world was environmentally compatible with Raven's physiology, so she wouldn't need the breathing apparatus currently sitting in the folding valise. In some of the places they'd been, she had to keep her soul-self shield active the entire time to keep corrosives in the atmosphere from attacking her skin. The empath had learned a lot of new tricks from the dragon in the last several months, but his ability to instantly adapt to any environment was an innate part of his being, and not something he could teach.

Floating up and away from his back allowed the dragon to assume his humanoid form. This gave her a good vantage point for examining their surroundings; looking around, she decided at first blush that this was a pleasant world. A carpet of multihued plant life stretched off in three directions, and the air was filled with a heavy, loamy and definitely agreeable scent. She joined him on the ground and they both stared up at the imposing structure before them.

Backed up against the sparkling cliff face, it was organic, or what passed for organic on this world. A tree-thing of brilliant, emerald green, the massive 'trunk' soared some twelve or fifteen meters upward before it bulged out in a great oblate spheroid at least forty meters across and thirty tall. Openings of various shapes and sizes dotted the exterior, as did at least two hundred long 'branches' that jutted out, perpendicular to the surface. The branches were quite regular, each splitting into three and those splitting into three, and were covered with small, hexagonal 'leaves' that appeared to be made of colored glass, or perhaps citrine. They glittered and sparked as they jostled in the light breeze.

Raven offered, "It's pretty, in a weird sort of way."

"Agreed." He held up a long arm and shouted a _halloo_.

A few seconds later the ground around them erupted as several thin root-like things wrapped up around their legs. Raven's eyes narrowed, but Set cautioned her to keep still. The rootlets didn't tighten, indeed they barely caressed as they quickly snaked upward, creating a living lattice around the two. As soon as it was complete, the pattern glowed briefly and the visitors vanished.

The light was much dimmer inside the great sphere, and suffused with green. The surface under their feet was soft and spongy, but resilient, somewhat like a very thick wrestling mat. Neither humanoid wore shoes, so they got the full benefit of this 'interactive' floor. Raven gave a small sigh of pleasure and worked her toes up and down.

A low, sibilant voice echoed in their minds. "Welcome, travelers, to my world. What questions do you have for Iltahar?"

Raven spread her arms. "Wise One, I beg the boon of knowledge."

"Knowledge is the greatest gift, and the greatest good. Do you understand its value?"

"I believe I do, Wise One."

"What is this knowledge that you seek?"

Quickly, Raven outlined her need, her goal, and her plan for attaining it. "And so you see, Wise One, this task is beyond the limits of our power. We must find the one who can help us, or find an item that can help us, in removing my companion from the Eye while at the same time containing the demon."

Iltahar made no reply for several minutes. They waited patiently. Finally, the echoing voice said, "I believe I have heard of someone who may possess the power to help you."

Raven's heart leaped. Her fingers trembled; perhaps this time would be different. A few abortive attempts to say something finally ended with, "Do you really? Can we find him? Can we speak to him?"

"Finding him will not be difficult. Speaking with him … could pose a problem. But that is not the primary difficulty."

She stopped, becalmed. "Then … what _**is**_ the primary difficulty?"

"He will not wish to help you."

She could only stand there, blinking, dreading to hear the same thing she had heard at least three dozen times already. "But … why?"

"Because he holds you in enmity."

_It's happening again. Damn it all straight to hell, it's happening again._ She struggled to keep the tears from her eyes.

Set spoke up, "Who is this individual, Oh Wise One? Where can we find him?"

"If you return to your home-world, you will be able to contact the leader of the Justice League. His name is Kal El, but most sentients on your planet refer to him as Superman."

"Yes. We know of Superman."

"That is good. He will be able to instruct you in how to reach your quarry. Superman has dealt with him before."

The two visitors shared an unpleasantly dour and knowing glance. Set asked, "What is his name?"

"He is called Darkseid."

Raven's deep sigh reverberated from every wall of the great space. "Darkseid. Dear god."

"Yes," answered Iltahar, "he does refer to himself in that way. His race has styled itself The New Gods. But they are not true gods, being mortal, and liable to die. Also, while powerful, his abilities are not exactly god-like. But his hubris, his ambition, and his evil know very few bounds. He has warred with your home-world twice now. He will not be amenable to aid you in achieving your goal."

Set and Raven looked at each other in despair. She, at length, asked, "Is there no one else who can be of help?"

"Doubtless there are many. I simply do not know of them."

Her breath ragged and shaky, Raven bowed her head.

"However, that does not mean you cannot find them."

"… I beg your pardon?"

"I do not know of such a one, personally, but my colleague, m'Yor-Tor'naw, may. He resides on an ice-world some twelve parsecs from here." The coordinates of the world in question were imprinted on their brains. They didn't even flinch, being used to that sort of thing by now.

Her voice small and resigned, Raven said, "Thank you, Wise One."

"You will need to rest. You traveled a great distance to get here."

Set readily agreed. "I am quite fatigued. Rest would be welcome."

An opening appeared off to their left. Iltahar said, "You will find rooms down there. Food will be supplied shortly. Please do not feel obligated to leave any time soon. I enjoy entertaining visitors, especially ones with minds as interesting as yours."

Set held an arm out. "After you, my dear."

"Thank you." Despite her bleak expression, she gave his arm an affectionate squeeze as she walked by. He followed her, just to the rear of her left elbow, ever watchful, ever protective.

Set had been the first to suggest this method of seeking knowledge, knowing both that Raven was not really capable of interplanetary travel, and that the answers she desired very likely did not reside on Earth. She and Jinx had been responsible for saving his hide (and incidentally, their little corner of the multiverse) and that sort of debt was not one that any self-respecting dragon could ignore. He had pledged to her his aid until she freed Jinx from her prison, or died in the attempt. He didn't tell her this, but privately he planned to continue her quest in the unlikely event that she _did_ die. He felt Jinx deserved the courtesy.

They came upon what was evidently supposed to be their quarters and entered. A variety of unusual vegetable-like things were laid out on a flat protuberance that jutted from a wall to serve as a table. Tall, flat bumps on the floor beside the 'table' could be used as chairs.

Raven observed, "It would seem that our host doesn't ordinarily use much furniture."

"Considering that we are, I believe, actually _inside_ our host, that doesn't surprise me."

Mulling that for a moment, Raven nodded in comprehension. "I didn't notice any flying creatures when we were outside. Maybe there aren't any animal forms on this planet."

"As it was with ('*-*,!)'s planet." His rendition of the brief, staccato, whistling call that the silicon-based creature had used as a name was quite accurate. "But then there wasn't really 'life' there at all, as we DNA-based types would define it. Just highly-organized rocks."

Raven gave a small grunt of assent and dug the Eye back out, letting it roll slowly around in her palm. Set noted her solemn gaze and walked over, seating himself in midair beside her. In their recent close association, he had developed a great deal of respect for the young empath. His life spanned nearly a thousand _times_ as long as hers, but rarely – _very_ rarely – had he ever met someone who possessed as much strength of character. He'd told her, about a month into their mission, that she would have made a good dragon. One could hardly imagine higher praise from one of his race.

Reaching over, he laid a careful finger on top of the Eye, stilling its restless motion. "I wonder if you would explain something to me."

"I'll try."

"Humans," he declared, "have a tremendous capacity for this thing you refer to as 'love'. By this I mean romantic love; the sort of love that you feel for Jinx."

She was grateful for the distraction, even though they'd been over this ground many times. The dragon found the topic a continual captivation. "You'll get no argument from me. But I think a lot of people don't realize their capacity."

"Agreed. That is one facet of my question. Primarily, do you think, is it because they don't try or because they don't meet the right person?"

"Whoosh." This was a new direction. "Why don't you give me a _tough_ question?"

"I apologize. If you don't wish to …"

"No, no … it doesn't make me uncomfortable." Leaning back in her seat, she held the Eye between two fingers, studying it while she expanded upon her answer. "It's just that I really don't know. I'd like to think that most people don't have to meet one specific person to be happy; that there might be several equally good candidates available, or even that a couple could carve out a decent life for themselves purely through effort, if they were both committed to it. I've seen that a few times, and heard of a lot more. But then there are a lot of people who are convinced that Mister or Miss Right is out there somewhere, and they won't be satisfied until that person is found." She shrugged. "Humans are variables. We don't all react the same way to stimuli. Not even close. Hell, some of us don't react the _same_ way twice to the _same_ stimulus. So a general answer to your question isn't really feasible."

"I was afraid not."

Raven gave him the ghost of a tentative smile. They'd had any number of such conversations, ranging through hundreds of topics, but usually about some facet of the human condition or psychology or sociology. Set found humans endlessly fascinating, since they were so much less predictable than his own species. He'd been interacting with the hairless apes since before they started using metal, and they never ceased to offer some new angle to delight him.

By way of a sort of payment for her information, he had been helping her hone her magical abilities. She'd been a dangerous opponent before; now she was swift death on either hand. (Set's magic tended to run heavily to offense.) They also spent at least an hour each day in meditation together. This, as much as anything else, had brought them closer. Set had begun this quest out of a sense of obligation. Now he kept at it more because of the respect and affection he felt for the demi-demon. Her sense of integrity rivaled his, a trait he found irresistibly admirable.

"But," continued the girl, "the other point is just as valid. Some people just don't try. They get distracted by career or circumstances, and don't try to find love. It's a shame, really, but then that was me for a long time. I never felt that I could be in a loving relationship – you know, _that_ kind – because of the connection between my emotions and my powers. Jinx proved me wrong." Her gaze drifted back to the eye.

"I see. Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

He just watched her stare at the Eye for a while. Then he shook himself and investigated the offered food. Although primarily a predator, Set could eat pretty much anything and make use of it. The vegetable-things were pungent, spicy and refreshing, and he offered one to the empath. They ate in silence for a while, the Eye sitting on the 'table' between them.

"Iltahar seems a nice enough fellow."

Set looked over at his companion, licking his lips before replying. "Yes, he does. Our previous informant had said as much."

"He hinted that he'd like for us to stay here a while and visit."

"True. What of it? Do you want to?"

She gave her head a small shake. "If it's all the same to you, once you feel like you're sufficiently rested, I'd like to go see that colleague he mentioned."

Quickly he nodded. "I concur. The sooner we track down someone who can help us, the sooner you and Jinx will be reunited."

"And the sooner you can return to your people. I know it must be dreadfully dull and dragging for you to have to follow me around on this wild …"

"No, Raven. Not at all. This is shaping up to be quite an adventure, and I am enjoying myself as much as circumstances allow. I am honored, also, to be given the chance to aid Jinx, who sacrificed her freedom to save us." He smiled. "But beyond that, my friend, I would miss your company rather desperately."

A light blush tinged her cheeks. "Thanks."

He willed the sticky juice off his fingers and stood. "I am going to spend some time surveying this world before my rest period. Would you care to come?"

"Not just now. I think I'll meditate for a bit and then turn in."

"Very well." He leaned over and lightly kissed her forehead. "I will not wake you when I return." His form faded to a wispy outline and winked out.

Raven sighed and stretched her legs out before folding them into the lotus position and returning her attention to the Eye of Eru. Concentrating on the green depths to the exclusion of all else, she had no trouble making out Jinx's signature in the tiny prison, colored as it was by the taint of the demon she had trapped. Wrapping her fingers tightly around the gem, she held it close against her breast. "I _will_ get you back, Jinx. No matter how long it takes, or who I have to go through to do it. I'll get you back."

####

_**Here Ends**_

_**Enemy of My Enemy**_

_**(Book One of The Hard Choices Cycle)**_

_**. . .**_

_**. . .**_

_**. . .**_

**Author's Notes:**

And there they are. Separated. Apart. One of them in really dire straits. And nothing resolved.

Believe me, I don't like it any more than you do. But that's what my Muse gave me to work with, and I had to run with it.

This is something of a departure from **everything** else I've ever written. I have several stories posted on The Raccoon's Bookshelf that are not included on FFnet due to the nature of the material, and in every case the plot worked out to a satisfactory conclusion. At least, I was satisfied, and I think most of the characters were.

But not this time. And it bugged me. Okay, so … I am totally addicted to happy endings. Inasmuch as this story did _**not**_ have a happy ending, I grumped about that until my Muse showed up and splatted me across the face with 'the rest of the story', as Paul Harvey would have said. It's an odd tale, even by my standards, and I cannot guarantee when it will get underway. I have a lot of other work that I've been putting off to write EoME that absolutely HAS to get done before anything else happens.

So stay tuned for the next installment – _The Hard Choices Cycle,_ _Book Two: Specialization Is For Insects._

I'll post a little sneak-peek of the first chapter when I get it done. In the meantime … Happy Reading!

Cheers!

Concolor44


End file.
